A good book for discussion. (Caroline had suggested it, for no other reason than that she wanted someone to talk about it with.) It was interesting enough that everyone enjoyed it, more-or-less (except for Alan, who didn't come), even though they had problems with parts of it. The visual gimmicks were intriguing, but also a bit over the top (and not present in the taped version). Oskar was either unbelievably precocious, or the spitting image of grandkids or former students. The grandparents, however, were too caricatured to have much depth. And Oskar's mother, as seen through Oskar's eyes, was a blank.