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A review by gregzimmerman
Godwin by Joseph O'Neill
2.0
Joseph O'Neill is often a fun-to-read writer, even when he is digressing which is frequently, and this novel has a promising premise (searching for the next great soccer superstar in Africa with undertones of the dangers of globalization), but it carries two fatal flaws:
1) The "workplace drama" about a collective of technical writers is about as dull as a mid-1980s MS-DOS user's manual.
2) A good one-third of the story is told by a character telling the other characters the story about looking for the kid Godwin in Africa. It's a curious craft decision. And this story is so long, the two characters become bored by it, and that's LONG after we've become bored by it.
I love soccer and underdog stories but I still barely made it through this.
1) The "workplace drama" about a collective of technical writers is about as dull as a mid-1980s MS-DOS user's manual.
2) A good one-third of the story is told by a character telling the other characters the story about looking for the kid Godwin in Africa. It's a curious craft decision. And this story is so long, the two characters become bored by it, and that's LONG after we've become bored by it.
I love soccer and underdog stories but I still barely made it through this.