The Scent of Pine: A Novel | 
so-soI've never been good at giving negative reviews, but I may have to downgrade this to a "pan" if I come to my senses. I like this picture I took better than the book itself. It had promise, with themes of middle aged malaise and the juxtaposition between mythologized personal history vs objective truth. But it was buried under clunky, expository dialogue and a plot that didn't really match the back cover copy. I missed Vapnyar's short stories.
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