If there is one thing you can usually rely on commercial fiction for, it is a plot. In exchange for this, you get some schmaltz and lazy thinking. Sometimes you waver and think, oh well, let’s read this, at least it will be entertaining. Thus, my impulse purchase of STANDARD DEVIATION, whose cover quote from Nigella Lawson told me everything I needed to know about it’s level of ambition.
Unfortunately, STANDARD DEVATION is not like most commercial fiction. Sentimentality, this it has. Predictable self-discovery, yes. Characters working too hard at being charming, yes. Special needs children, definitely. But narrative forward progress, no.
It was cynical and dull in equal measure. Serves me right for deciding to waste my short life reading what I knew to be rubbish.