I admired Lutz's throughness in accruing examples, and there are many interesting sidebars and historical illustrations, but there's almost no point to this book at all. It reads somewhat like Marjorie Garber's latest works, except it's even more "lite"--it's as if he had been so busy finding things to discuss relative to tears that he forgot to spend time actually discussing what sorrow and sentiment and sentimentality actually mean.