A review by ondrobondro
Cold Spring Harbor by Richard Yates

2.0

Really disappointing. Yates’s idea of drifting between perspectives was interesting at first, but I found it lacking by the end - one of his greatest skills was in character studies and undertaking what made them tick. When he’s crammed so many perspectives into a novel so short, the result is fairly shallow and unrewarding. Most of the characters feel more like caricatures than rounded people.

Also holy hell this novel is weirdly horny. And incestuous. I could never quite work out whether he was playing for laughs or pathos here, but it comes across as neither and ends up being uncomfortable instead.