It seems somewhat ironic that the post I wrote yesterday about just how tedious The Tenderness of Wolves
There are very few books that I struggle to finish, but this was one that fell into that category without any doubt. Set in Canada in 1867 the book tells of the various journeys across the Canadian wilderness that some of the residents of Dove River have to go on to try to find out who killed one of the settlement's residents.
By about two thirds of the way through the book I started to find the journeys as long and boring as I'm sure some of the book's characters did and by the last few pages I no longer cared if people made it to the end of those journeys alive, or even who had murdered Jammet. All I wanted at that stage was to finish the book and to be able to move on and read something else.
The writing style was not one that made me feel any connection with any of the main characters. I also found it very difficult to keep track of exactly who was who in the book. The first person narrator changed between chapters and the same characters were sometimes referred to by first names, other times by surnames. Very confusing.
Overall I was left feeling very disappointed by this book. It won the 2006 Costa First Novel Award, but I am left wondering how. I came to read it as it was featured in the Waterstones books of the decade list that I am following. Again, I wondered how.
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