My English teacher assigned me to read this book... for some reason he must like the Oprah's Book Club, because we have read numerous other books from it this year. I found this to be a very gloomy and depressing book, and the style of writing makes it very difficult to understand. The writing must be "interpreted" because the author does such a poor job of describing it.Overall I would have to give this book a big thumbs down. I would never have read it unless I had to.Whoops, better use an anonymous username in case my English teacher happens to see this! I hate that teacher!