Reviews

Midnight Light: A Personal Journey to the North by Dave Bidini

whichthreewords's review

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4.0

Nicely done

bent's review

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2.0

I've read Dave Bidini's books in the past and enjoyed them, but this one didn't do much for me. Dave Bidini's Canadian references sometimes seem like someone who hasn't kept touch with the country since he was a young man. And the whole book seems very disconnected, just a bunch of stories. Many of the stories are well worth repeating, but Bidini isn't able to put them into a workable narrative. It would be nice if there was more to the book than "I went here and talked to this person and they said this:"

I also find his style kind of off-putting. It's a combination of very formal prose, with the occasional slang thrown in. Sometimes it seems like he's trying too hard to be professional, and sometimes it seems like he's trying too hard to be colloquial. It doesn't mesh well.

I did find this book to be a big of a grind, really counting down the pages near the end until I was done. There's probably a very good narrative in there somewhere, but Bidini hasn't found a way to bring it out.
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