Instruct: Classify Amazon reviews into positive or negative sentiment
Query: Long on melodrama, short on character

What he does brilliantly in stories--the lush language, the small moments of tenderness, the smart, clever scenes--is overblown and overdone in this novel that desperately wants to be about something big but amounts to nothing more than a story we've heard time and time again. The characters are all merely cardboard, going through their tired roles--hayseed, eccentric NYC kid--and Canin never pushes them beyond their assigned roles. In the end, this reader thought: Who Cares? A major disappointment.