Whenever a talented new writer arrives, reviewers tend to overlook, or at least pardon, the weaknesses or limitations of his first few books.
Talent is rare and worth celebrating.
They are subtle and polished and quiet even in their moments of power. Any reassessment of Canin will have to note that this novel, at least, doesn't quite deliver. Kleinman and his mother are Jews who escape from Germany in 1933, shortly before his father, a wealthy manufacturer, is killed by a mob. In early 1945, Kleinman is an infantryman in the Pacific theater. Similarly, we must wait to learn other important facts.