a difficult read emotionally....we had a wonderful book club discussion...but emotionally draining to go through all of what occurs in the book...

A book with so much fanfare, hype and potential. And the result? Utter disappointment. This book started off with so much potential: a story of a close connection between grandfather and grandchild. Sure, that's what all the reviews say and the summary of the book state. But what follows in an endless book of random characters, random side stories and random tidbits is a mess of distortion. I have no idea, after reading the entire book, who or what the Tiger's Wife is, was or represented. The connection/relationship between the character, her grandfather, her grandmother, and even her mother was nonexistent. The book has some surreal parts (The Deathless Man) that didn't add anything to me. As a whole, the book was cold, austere and didn't prove to me any human relationships or empathy. I truly do not understand the hype behind this book...and am disappointed that I bought into the hype and muddled through the book to finish reading it with a "are you kidding? that's it?" Wholly dissatisfying and disjointed. Not a story but a bunch of seemingly short stories poorly woven together.
Go ahead and skip this one on the "must read" list. I wish I had.

A very fast and unsatisfying read. Characters are flat, no background. A very cold look inside a family. Very blah.