Songs In Ordinary Time by Mary McGarry Morris

Did you ever watch Love Boat on TV? How about Fantasy Island? Did you ever think that it was clever of the producers to shove at least three stories into a one-hour slot thereby minimalizing the need for much writing? By the time every character has been established and their thin plot-line is underway, the ship is back in port and everyone's holiday is over.

Well, it is totally unfair, but I kept thinking of this while reading Songs In Ordinary Time. Morris writes about the people in a Vermont small town in the 1960s. Some are neighbours, some are families, some are bitterly feuding, some are carrying around dark secrets. It is not fluff - it is solid writing, with plenty of plot and the characters are well-drawn, but somehow everything seems all written on the surface only. There was never a moment when I felt particular empathy for anyone's situation, so the reading experience was quite distant for me and fell rather flat. Can't heartily recommend this as one to my taste, however my mother got quite enthusiastic about checking it out when I mentioned my "surface only" impression. She loves surface stories. I guess everyone's recreational reading needs are different.

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