A History of Burning

Review

Solid and engaging throughout. I found the multi-generational storytelling less compelling and fully realized than some other recent books that are similar at a surface level—Pachinko and The Covenant of Water come to mind. I think the main things that I didn't like were the writing, which I found flowery without much substance, and the characters, who I thought felt more like plot devices than thoroughly realized people. We spent so much time in the characters' heads that we never got time to get to know them, paradoxically. That is, the author spent so much time telling you how everyone felt about everything going on in their lives that there was no space to understand the characters on their own terms.