Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

No need to get snippy when somebody voices a negative opinion about a book they've had a negative experience reading. It's not personal to you, dear readers, no matter how much you like the author. That said, I really disliked this book. I read it for a book club, or else I would not have made it all the way through. I find it disjointed (as has been stated) but I don't dislike this due to a lack of understanding. I GET what's happening. I CAN follow the narrative, but I just don't get IT--IT being what this book offers to readers that either hasn't been offered before or otherwise contributes to an engaging, moving experience. It's not complex, but it's also not easy to read in a pleasurable way that at the very least tells an interesting story. It doesn't. I'm sincerely baffled by the hype, and I do read. I read a lot. I was an English major in school, and I now work as an editor. I love books and literature. I often enjoy stream of consciousness writers, but I find that the author fails to do what stream of consciousness writing sets out to do--that is, make the reader feel like they are in the heads and p.o.v.'s of very human characters. In this book, I feel no interesting or unique perspectives, no lifelike characters, no intriguing storytelling, and above all, no meaningful comment or dashes of ingenuity (which would make lack of the previous aspects mentioned tolerable). To summarize this, it just feels kinda phoned in. I can't imagine that as a professional author, Saunders spent more than an hour or two on any of these stories. They feel not fleshed out, not edited, and not polished, like ordering your favorite soup and receiving it watery, tasteless, and cold. Say what you will, George Saunders fans, this was disappointing and left me wondering if I was reading an entirely different book than was read by the rave reviewers (NYT and reading population alike).