A review by omnibozo22
The Death and Life of Zebulon Finch, Volume One: At the Edge of Empire by Daniel Kraus

2.0

Ugh. Interesting premise beaten into the ground by borrowing tropes from a dozen other books that didn't resort to boring forms of magical realism. Bits of Sargent York, Sunset Boulevard, Oliver Twist... and on and on. Includes an looooooong section on WWI, and ends with the beginning of WWII. Not a single aspect of the WWI section presented information or insights that we haven't seen explored much better in dozens of books and films. Easily a third of this book could be cut without damaging the story. As it is, it was too much of a slog for me to consider reading a second volume.