A review by vgk
The Gap of Time by Jeanette Winterson

1.0

Although I would generally say I'm a fan, Winterson's work is always either hit or miss with me and this is definitely a miss. I hated the world she's created, the characters were one-dimensional (they are each either REALLY REALLY bad or REALLY REALLY good), the plot was obvious and quite stupid (perhaps Shakespeare's original is more believable?), it is disjointed and difficult to follow and the writing, unusually for Winterson, is pretty awful. Worst of all (for me) were the passages where she attempts to convince us she has some sort of profound philosophical insights about time and forgiveness, sections which reek of pretension but actually convey nothing at all. And I have no idea at all what all the computer game business was about, other than perhaps to try (but fail) to say something profound about the modern age, or maybe to appeal to a younger market. I got the sense that she was distracted whilst writing this, that it didn't get her full attention and there was a deadline before it was properly finished. I hated it.