5

there is a common superstition that art - no, the ART - is supposed to run beyond the edge aiming for becoming a bleeding heart on a spear. and so this is the offer that is usually expected from it, expected even by those who don't understand or appreciate it, ironic, huh?
now, this book is nice. you know classic 'nice': good people with their little or less weaknesses on their way straight to 'almost perfect' ['cause 'absolutely perfect' is bad taste, you know =) ]. and when one hears that, one thinks [censored =D ] the book's been convicted of a crime really! 'the descendants' is also simple and simply written, it is lifelike, almost boring, hawaiian, correct, a bit too american, sad, but optimistic, maybe slightly naive and not dirty... oh, boy, sounds like a death sentence =D
i guess talent is not about edges themselves, it is about balance in them - getting precisely in between stupid moralizing in honour of paradise advertisement of 'how things should be' and shit and fears right from our guts . art's gotta be a well-balanced blade looking to cut a reader down.
this book is no sword, it's not gonna stab your brain or cut your head off =) it is a knife, a perfect knife, a knife as unbelievably good as knife can possibly be. good luck with it!

P.S. a middle-aged man is being forced to get out of rat race of his routine existence in order to watch and see his own life and history, and gets to know life's ways around and the ways and hearts of his own family. like i said - simple.