I wanted so to enjoy this book if only because it has such an evocative title. But I’m going nuts trying to read it. mind you I am used to reading long German sentences where I sometime forgot what it was going on by the time I got to the verb! Guterson piles on the adjectives, commas and more description. I want to take a red ink pen to the text. Now I find Hemingway too brief, enjoyed Joseph Conrad’s grasp of the language and do appreciative a descriptive phrase. But I am starting to skip over sections of this book. I made it to page 45 and decided life is too short for overuse of adjectives and commas. Was 1995 so long ago? I wonder if many of the reviewers would hold the book in such high esteem today.