response 181 of 298:

Mar 12 07:07 UTC 1999

  Currently reading "The Shipping News", which made a big splash a couple
  of years ago and has been on my list of eventual reads for quite some
  time.  Actually, though, I'm now glad that I didn't read it a few years
  ago when it was first recommended to me.  Since that time I've had a
  chance to visit Newfoundland (last summer) and the book is very successful
  at evoking memories of that forlorn and eerie place.  

  I'm enjoying it so far but unless there's a really *huge* payoff at the
  end I'm not sure I'd consider all of the attention it received (including
  the Pulitzer Prize) completely justified.  I'd recommend it without much
  reservation; I'm just not convinced that 100 years from now people will be
  talking about it as one of the most memorable novels of the century...