Did we read a different book? Serena.

It does seem, from that - and according to Andrea's reports of other readers, that BGO members who read Serena march to a different drum.

I read that, and despite not having been part of the Canongate Read, I did have a similar thought from having read your comments!

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That's such an effusive review I expect it turn up in Private Eye's end-of-year column where they dob in favourable reviewers that turn out to be for books written by their brother-in-law or the like.

I suspect you are right Adrian, though he does concede that Serena herself is one-dimensional. To then call the book "spectacular" does beggar belief.

I noticed that (s)he did gloss over that annoying little fact and then said something like, "Even so, it's a great book."

The site Reviewsofbook has links to 7 reviews of Serena if anyone wants to trawl through them.

Jay Parini is a respected professor in the US and he is a regular contributor to the Guardian.

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I suspect Adrian was being tongue-in-cheek. No doubting Parini's 'qualifications' to have a review published but it does appear that we read a different book.