Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

My book group has been together for about five years and has read about 40 books. Within the group we have a diverse set of tastes and while we sometimes all agree that a book is good, we had never all agreed that a book was irredeemable. That is, until Manhattan Beach. This novel was agreed unanimously to be the worst book we have read. We found this all the more remarkable given Jennifer Egan's reputation and the glowing reviews of the novel in major newspapers and magazines. Unlike every book group discussion that preceded it, this discussion devolved into an amusing contest to best describe why the book was so bad (for there were so many features to choose from), and went on to become a meditation on whether book reviews in media outlets are a corrupt endeavor. Dwight Garner of the NYT called the novel "immensely satisfying." We simply cannot understand this. The sources of badness in the novel are replete. In fact, the book fails miserably at being any of the things it seems to want to be. Is it a period piece about second world war New York? An inspiring story about a plucky girl growing up without a father? A story about ethnicity or class divisions? A story about diving or the merchant marines? The effect of illness on a family? Well, I guess it is all of things yet none of them. The overwhelming impression of Manhattan Beach is that the author had no purpose in writing the book and may have indeed finished in a place that was very different than the place she started. Ultimately, we had no idea as readers what we should take away from this book. A couple of aspects of the book bear noting. In particular, the plot is incredibly unlikely with multiple rapid and unbelievable pivots required to maintain the forward movement of the story. Again, Egan seemed to write herself into a corner and then fall back on amateurish devices to get herself out. The book is filled with coincidences and unexplained shifts that leave the reader scratching her head or, in all of our cases at least, putting the book down in despair. Even so, a better review might have been possible if the writing had been good. But what we were maybe the most surprised about given Egan's reputation was the prevalence of cringe-inducing passages that sounded like the product of a recently minted MFA rather than an established writer of repute. This book has been described as a more conventional novel, a page-turner, or even a beach read. If that is what you are looking for then I think you can do far better. For me this book lacks all of the attributes of a book that would succeed within those genres. And it isn't good literature either, for sure. In the end it is a confused and disappointing mess.