Customer Comments

A beautiful piece of magical realism, puzzling at first but ultimately engrossing. Ishiguro writes first-person perception of the world like few others, with tragically lovely characters and beautiful settings. This isn't the best of his books, but it's a worthwhile read if you've finished "Remains of the Day" and "Never Let Me Go." Full review at timsusman.blogspot.com /2008/12/ review-unconsoled.html (remove spaces).

Fowler writes with a transparent love of her characters and the world they inhabit, and an eye for amusingly ridiculous situations. Although the story wanders between many of the different characters, it's a very satisfying read, and with a lovely use of language. The world of the frontier is an interesting one, in which the struggle between society's laws and individual expression is much more open than it is in our modern urban areas. Sarah Canary, wandering through this world as a mute embodiment of individuality who doesn't seem to reject society's laws so much as live completely apart from them, serves as a catalyst for people who are similarly trying to find that balance. I'm reminded of the old fairy tale in which some object was enchanted so that everyone who tried to steal it was stuck to it, and anyone who tried to help became stuck to them, resulting in a long chain of people being dragged around by this object's owner. So is Sarah Canary a magical object attracting a chain of people behind her, and their stories make this book a delightful, engaging read. (Full review at http://timsusman.blogspot.com .)