Agreed. I thought I was going to die of boredom during her first book but she actually got better as she wrote. The rumors, however, that she writes by committee a la Robert Patterson are starting to gripe my cookies.I thought her early novels were derivative, but her later, more mature work has redefined magical realism for the 21st century.
Yes, but you have to admit that her use of shoes to symbolize the futility of life was unique (the NY Times called it "the sole of a new generation"). I believe the book is now being used in most college classes on Very Early 21st Century Literature.I found her debut to be pedestrian and lacking polish.