Word: game
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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THERE is a game some people play with their dogs. They hold a piece of food or a bone above the animal's head, tempting it, until the dog jumps up, ready to snatch the delicacy in its jaws. Then, these otherwise perfectly nice people yank the food away, out of reach, and the dog falls back to the ground, empty-mouthed...
Dogs, who are generally fairly stupid animals, will play this game for hours. Reading Sheila Kohler's first novel, The Perfect Place, is a lot like being the dog in this game...
Except, unlike dogs, the reader is likely to get pissed off at the game and walk away...
KOHLER'S attempt to describe someone so unappealing and emotionless, and tell a story so difficult to relate, is admirable, but ultimately it fails. The reader is much more likely to give up than to continue to play her game, because the rewards--the details of the story--are doled out so agonizingly slowly...
...game with the dog depends on the stupidity of the animal and also its desire for the reward. In The Perfect Place, the reader is too smart to waste the time, and the reward--the final story--is so unworthy that it is unlikely many readers will continue to play the game for long...