I saw this on the library shelves, read the blurb, and liked the idea of it - a young fisherman loses his friend at sea after a fishing trip goes badly wrong, and decides to return the book his friend was reading to the man he borrowed it from. He ends up being taken in and becomes part of a community. It sounded like the kind of story I'd like, and I did like it. I do think, though, that the story is somewhat overshadowed by the prose. It's very elliptical and reflective, quite repetitive in a dreamy sort of way, and is absolutely overrun with commas. (I say that knowing that I use far too many of them myself.)

I can't say that the prose sucked me in. It's more that I got the impression of ice... something to slide over without getting much of a purchase. I can appreciate it even if it didn't appeal on an emotional level. I've not read anything else by the author, so I can't say if this style is common for him or not, but the whole reads as quite experimental to me. I'm interested, but not absorbed.