LAURA RIDER'S MASTERPIECE (Jane Hamilton) - May 19/09

This intriguing yet uneven novel (Laura decides to cut off sex with her husband permanently? Really?) is extremely well written and while it was initially refreshing to read something more literary than my usual fare, I eventually did find that my eyes were starting to glaze over some of the more flowery paragraphs. Still, Hamilton does a superb job of transforming the three central characters into incredibly vivid figures - even if the story they're trapped within isn't always entirely plausible. **1/2 out of ****