I read two paragraphs of the wretched thing back when everyone was talking about it and hurled it across the room. The writing is absolutely abysmal; if my 8th grade son produced anything that bad (to say nothing of the prodigal use of italics; enough, already, we get it, this is meant to be important!) I'd expect his English teacher to flunk him.

The fact that it's been at the top of the NY Times best-seller list for some shocking length of time merely adds to my growing despair at what appears to be the steadily shrinking IQ of my native country as a whole (as if the 2004 election wasn't enough!).

~D