3 out of 4 stars
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McDowell by William H. Coles is a book that follows the story of Hiram McDowell, who is a famous surgeon and a sleaze in every other way. He is stuck in a bad marriage primarily because of his knack for other women. He also has children and it is his role as an absentee parent that further colours his character.
What appealed to me from the onset of reading this book is the character that is McDowell. The man has not been painted like the traditional heroes that we know and love. He is in fact what many would call an 'antihero'. He is a man who cheats on his wife and does many other unspeakable deeds but the story still primarily revolves around him and later on around his transformation. The character is ideally and practically very hard to love which adds to the intrigue of the novel.
The realism of this book is also to be applauded. The author has created grey characters that are not completely good and not completely evil. They are characters that tell the story of the average person. Carole, McDowell's wife, represents all wives who have been cheated on by their husbands. Her actions mirror what a real-life woman would do. This prevents us from falling in love with her but makes us understand and relate to her on a deeper level.
The author has successfully experimented and introduced us to many themes in the novel. In fact, darker themes such as revenge, infidelity and betrayal have been explored which further draws the reader into the plot of the story.
However, I disliked the writing style of the author. It was very plain and minimalistic. The author did not use classical writing tools such as suspense. At all times, you know everything that has happened and that is going to happen. Also, he used each chapter to explain different characters and different scenes which I found to be wanting because it sometimes disoriented and confused me as to where the story was going.
I gladly rate this book 3 out of 4 stars. I feel that the plot was irresistible and there was a strong character development in the book. I also loved the plotline of the story but I did not like its execution. It did, however, make for an enjoyable read as it had very little grammatical and spelling errors and as such, I highly recommend it to all young adults who are interested in learning the complexities of relationships.
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McDowell
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