Pocket Island

Mixed feelings. I liked the story of the treasure and liked the story of the young man. But in another way, it felt fragmented. A lot of the plot points had to be inferred rather than being spelled out. The young man goes to fight in the Civil War, but little is made of it. Apparently, though, it had quite an impact on his life...thus, the story feels unfocused, as though the small things were made a big deal of and the big things little. For instance, we hear plenty about the race of the bad guys (Jewish and Indian) but none at all of other things. Also, plenty of mythology is thrown in (Pandora, etc) and a feeling of sadness/ineffectiveness thrown in because the author clearly does not believe in anything beyond the present life and finds that life too short and too soon forgotten.