The all-too-brief moments of storytelling genius which stirred my curiosity were not enough to keep me from the realization that I did not like the main characters which the story revolved around. 

Maybe I'm too young to appreciate this coming-of-age tale in the the 1970's. Oh wait; scratch that. I love the idea of mid-to-late century boarding school stories. In fact, I've been trying to seek out anything from this category which looks appealing. It's really too bad that when I find a rare book of this type which shows promise, (see also : The Yonahlossee Riding Camp for Girls) it hasn't been working for me. Sadly, I found more to like (as well as more quotable moments) in Yonahlossee, and so I had to rate this book slightly lower.

One thing which did strangely appeal was the creepy narrator, although I think the author should have gone all-in with the commitment to showcasing his voice. There were points where the voice would switch to a generic third person narrative, and I think the book would have been better served if Bruce's presence had been this tingle on the back of my neck the entire time. 

In the end, I only had a mild fascination about where things went wrong with Aviva and Seung. The last couple of chapters served as nothing more than a vehicle to make me think oh...okay, so that's how it is. 

One minor observance : what is it with some literary fiction and awkward, unappealing sexual situations? I do appreciate the effort to maintain some sort of realistic version of how things happen. However, I hate reading sentences such as his briefs fill again and again with sticky ejaculate. Some things are probably better left out, accuracy or not.

The writing was strong - the emotional pull was not. If you enjoy literary fiction, I'd suggest looking at some other reviews first before discounting the read. There seems to be quite a bit of praise for this story from the general public. The problem could have squarely been with me.