A review by devinsr
Doxology by Nell Zink

I dont generally write reviews on here because I usually only finish and post books I’d at least mostly endorse, but this was definitely an exception, and so much so that it’s bothering me to not talk about it. I ultimately found this book disappointing. It was recommended to me by a friend on the merits of the author’s previous books (which I’m still interested in exploring despite my experience of reading Doxology), so I honestly wanted to like it and am disappointed I didn’t so much. I found, like many others, the beginning of this book to be the most engaging section. Once 9/11 happens, the book pivots around Flora growing up and the aftermath of Joe’s sudden death. Given that Flora is less than two years younger than me, I was interested in her depiction but I couldn’t relate to her at all outside of a pretty boring portrayal of the listlessness many millennials have experienced. She’s weirdly surrounded by almost no one else her age which only added to the general sense that Zink doesn’t understand our generation in an intimate enough way that she could even write Flora a millennial friend group. Or even just one friend her age who sticks around. Once the narrative approached present day and swung overly political, it was almost excruciating to read. Not merely because I think it’s mostly way too soon to be fictionalizing current events to any beneficial effect, but I also generally found Zink’s political analysis to be generic and often totally missing the mark. Overall, most characters felt like sketches, but with Joe, Pam, and Daniel, it didn’t bother me as much. It felt easier to understand them and like Zink knew who they all were and why they made the choices they did because she could personally relate to them better than she could with Flora. Even Flora’s much older boyfriend, Bull, felt motivationally more clear than she did. Perhaps that was her attempt at discussing the frustrating generational experience of being a millennial, but as a frustrated millennial, it really didn’t work for me. Overall, I found this book to be much too long and somewhat self-indulgent in a boring way. I don’t mind either of those things when the author makes it work, but I really had to struggle to finish this one. I dont particularly enjoy star or number ratings so I’ll just say I’d recommend skipping this one. Or stopping when 9/11 hits because honestly nothing after that is worth reading.