Reviews for So Long at the Fair

The average rating for So Long at the Fair based on 2 reviews is 1.5 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2008-07-07 00:00:00 Tony Dipalma I was going to skip this review completely, give the book one star, and leave it at that. But as I generally don't give horrible reviews, I thought I might as well have a low opinion for once. Keep in mind that this is, of course, my own opinion, as I've noticed many people really enjoyed this book. However, it did nothing for me as far as entertainment. The story spans only one day and is told from several different character points of view. The two main characters are the married couple of Jon and Ginny. Jon is having an affair with his co-worker, Freddi, with Ginny getting seemingly closer to finding out. Trailing the co-worker is her stalker, Ethan. While Jon and Ginny go their separate ways on this specific day, the story sets them up to arrive at the same place, a local fair that neither knows the other is going to be at. Between the narration of this day is another story of something that had happened years ago between Jon and Ginny's parents and another somewhat disliked local. This story is another one of betrayal, though a different sort all together. There are several reasons I didn't like this book. The characters are either wooden or whiny. Ginny gives me nothing to work with, nothing to like. Even the characters I should have disliked didn't do anything. Jon was annoying as a character, constantly debating all the ways in which his cheating is wrong. The back story, while having a slight connection to the present story, really wasn't needed. It was silly and felt forced. Besides that, it dragged on and was overall very boring. There was nothing new to it. Everything I read felt familiar, not original. And the ending…well, let's just say that had the rest of the book been enjoyable for me, I would have found it disappointing. Since the whole thing was a disappointment, I guess it was par for the course.

Review # 2 was written on 2008-07-21 00:00:00 Edward Edmonds I wanted to love this book - I had such high expectations for it! I read 2 very positive reviews for it in major publications, I had it on hold at the library for months, read positive reviews for it on Amazon, I figured it must be good. It wasn't. It was ok… which is frustrating because it could have been great. The books takes place in the span of 1 day with lots of flash backs telling the back story of how the main characters met and also telling a story from 1963 that involved their parents and how they are linked together from 1 event. Sounds good, huh? I thought so too... I love reading books that have interwoven stories or back stories told through flash backs. When this is done right it's like getting 2 books in one. Hasn't everyone read a book that has flash backs chapters that you find yourself flipping ahead a few chapters to see what happens next? I didn't want to skip a head in this book - I really didn't care if I was in present or past - neither story grab me or was all that interesting. I kept waiting for the big climax, it never came. So Long at the Fair was an easy read (read it in less than a week) with a good idea, just didn't work for me.