The ups and Downs of Craig Ferguson

So, i finished Between the Bridge and the River today after taking a weeklong break from the book because it was in my car and it's so damn cold at night i didn't want to go get it.

Again i won't go to far into plot.

The novel is about the lives of 4 men 2 brothers in America- Saul and Leon and 2 childhood friends from Scotland- George and Fraser and in the way that so many books seem to do- how their lives constantly overlap and connect out of some random occurrences.

I thought Ferguson's writing style was fun and familiar, with Adams-y asides that for the main part where all in good fun and allowed for alot of brevity when the plot needed to work through a part that was weird and didn't itself allow for alot of one-liner comedy. I thought the warnings at the begging of the book were not only useful but very important to the overall semi-moral of the book that anything is really possible ( the example is that according to the laws of physics, bumblebees shouldn't be able to fly.... but they do). I really enjoyed George's story throughout and wished there was a bit more on it. all in all, i think the 1st half of the book is much better than the second half because the last 100 pages have this incredible rushing that is very against the pacing that, while not slow, makes you accustomed to more gradual changes.

My problems with it where the fact that the character of Leon has a complete non-ending. For such a major character he really gets thrown away at the end. Also- the hollywood critiquing got a little old. I would have rather Ferguson has just made up actual names for people or things in Hollywood and given decent detail of them instead of just mushing the name up a touch. it got really old really quick. also- the amount of sexual terms just for gross-out sake really got out of hand by the end. and i hate christ imagery always- so i of course didn't like that part

In the end it's not something for people who are looking for serious lit or clean lit- but that is how it presents itself anyway- as a fun read that may cause a second look at some of their views on like. unfortunately the people who the book thinks could really used those views are not the people who will read this book- so it'll remain forever in the odd black space between beach read and Literature