The Long Dry

Great writing, properly immersive, moving and disturbing. But … the dead baby gambit? Please. Was it necessary? Gareth prefiguring disaster in the bog but ahhhh! you the reader know that’s already happened. Don’t see what that added to it really, the story was complete enough in itself. It’s not like it was an especially happy ending, but at least there was a sense of an ending - the dog is dead, the dry has ended, Gareth has reached a new accomodation with his wife. We’ve been on a journey and been shown some things, learned some things, and - oh, incidentally, the little girl dies a week after the book ends? Cheapens the overall effect.