There are good things and there are bad things. The good is that Cozzens regularly has the moments of profound insight into humanity. They seemingly come out of nowhere, but then there they are. He seems to do this a lot (in the other novel of his I'm reading too) though they often don't fit very well with what is actually happening plot-wise. The ending is also suitably open, which I really like. It almost made me think the book was better than it is. The problems: Cozzens' protagonist always seems to be near-omniscient. In this case, Ross is way to alert to everything. It's so unbelievable (fortunately Hicks isn't as bad). Worse, nobody talks like this! I have never met anyone in my life who speaks the way these people do. In this case, it's forgivable but in the other book I'm reading, it's disastrous. Something about this book, whether it is ridiculously short time-frame, the insights, the ending, or something else, makes me want to forgive Ross and the bad dialogue. So I do.
