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Love Canal
Tima Smith, author
What does a person do who's lost everything? For Nate, it's taking the neighbor's dog and heading north on a road trip. But then, he hasn't made a good decision in a while now. For Mina, it's going a little crazy. And who can blame her. Especially when Love Canal, the source of all her loss, is being fouled all over again and no one will do a thing about it. Can anything good come out of all this? Throw in a bad engine coil, a wax replica of Marilyn Monroe, a Native American of few words, and a plan -- and you bet it can.
Plot/Idea: 6 out of 10
Originality: 7 out of 10
Prose: 7 out of 10
Character/Execution: 5 out of 10
Overall: 6.25 out of 10
Assessment:
Though competently written, this novel set in the early 1990s takes too long to find its focus and suffers from genre confusion. After a lengthy prologue comprising the ruminations of a disgruntled dad, the book segues into a prickly -- and rather mawkish -- romance involving a multiply bereaved wife/mother secretly squatting at Love Canal, and then morphs into a would-be comic caper aided by a laconic Magical Native American.
Date Submitted: July 08, 2016
