Three days ago, I abandoned Michael Chabon’s The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay in favor of Elizabeth Berg’s Once Upon a Time, There Was You. Not because Amazing Adventures isn’t a great book, mind you. But after completing 146 pages (and with more than 500 remaining), my brain began to ache.

Don’t get me wrong: Chabon is an excellent writer and there were moments when I’d been intrigued. But on the whole, I found myself growing weary from the effort required to muddle throu...

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