Lacking the cultural context for the 2008 American election made it hard for me to enjoy this novel.

Disliking anthologies also made it hard to enjoy this novel because it’s filled with anthology-like digressions which rarely fit neatly with the rest of the text and each other.

The nail in the coffin though was how similarly structured this novel is to something like Priestdaddy by Patricia Lockwood.

Great Expectations fails to live up to this comparison and I find it hard to imagine me recommending this novel to anyone.

I wouldn’t be surprised if Vinson Cunningham was a great critic and short fiction writer from what I’ve read of his work so far, but he’s definitely no novelist.