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Jul 12, 2014lukasevansherman rated this title 3.5 out of 5 stars
It takes some pretty big cojones to title your book after one of the great Russian novels of the 19th century. Like Dostoevsky's masterpiece, Pac NW author David James Duncan, who also wrote "The River Why," crafts a sprawling, philosophical, sometimes exhausting family saga centered around the difficulties of family. Baseball, love, war, God, country and other capital I issues are all fair game in this novel, which reminded me of both John Irving and John Updike. The 60s setting (one brother goes to Vietnam) is a little cliched and the book goes on about 100 pages longer than it needs to, but it is mostly absorbing, observant, and thoughtful, if not quite as good as its reputation suggests.