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A review by jlasch
Contents May Have Shifted by Pam Houston
2.0
I wanted to like this book, but it ended up being just too scattered and intellectual for me. This novel resembled a series of pages torn for the narrator's (Pam) travel journal, and then shuffled like a deck of cards, so I was never quite sure if the stories where in true chronological order, although I knew they were generally in the right order. The short stories weren't a bad format, but I never felt truly engaged with any of the characters, including the narrator.
Throughout the novel there were pieces of writing that started creating a real connection to the narrator, but then the focus reverted back to the alignment of Pam's shakiras, and I checked out again. The places Pam visited were described with magical wonderment, and this saved the novel, but the stories could have been so much more if the characters of the people she visited were developed more richly. As a side note, I will have to seriously contemplate boarding a plane anytime in the near future. Some of the harrowing airplane experiences she described seem all too real to me, definitely a tribute to her writing in these chapters.
Throughout the novel there were pieces of writing that started creating a real connection to the narrator, but then the focus reverted back to the alignment of Pam's shakiras, and I checked out again. The places Pam visited were described with magical wonderment, and this saved the novel, but the stories could have been so much more if the characters of the people she visited were developed more richly. As a side note, I will have to seriously contemplate boarding a plane anytime in the near future. Some of the harrowing airplane experiences she described seem all too real to me, definitely a tribute to her writing in these chapters.