I had such high hopes for this novel after reading Oates’ description. However, while atmospheric and descriptive, the plot is heavy and slow moving. I found it suffocatingly dull with no redeeming characters.

TANGERINE has been compared to an Alfred Hitchcock movie, and I guess you could say that throughout most of the book. The last few chapters, however, spoil that likeness.

Alice has been living of late with her husband in Morocco, Tangier, specifically. She is English and isn’t comfortable there, to say the least. Throughout the book the reader will learn in flashbacks how she has come to be so unhappy.

One day, her old college roommate, Lucy, an American, arrives unannounced at Alice’s door. Through the flashbacks we learn more and more about Lucy and why she has come to Tangier.

I have to be careful about divulging too much about the flashbacks because learning about these characters little by little adds to the anticipation and is how, I’m sure, the book is meant to be read. But suffice it to say that the reader will come to understand the evil of one and the complete naïveté (or, as some may come to feel, stupidity) of the other.

The last few chapters of TANGERINE are difficult to read. So much is left unsaid that the reader just may feel like throwing the book across the room. Maybe a sequel is coming to explain all the loose ends.