The Winemaker's Daughter

Hey, lighten up, everybody. This guy is a brilliant writer. His details about water, wine, and women (or at least his one great woman, Brunella, who may have an unfortunate name--and I'm not sure it's better than Barola, which would have been more fitting--but who is effervescently both sensual and sexual) are deep and true and give the novel a nice backbone. True, the story doesn't quite hold together. But it's better for Egan to have bitten off too much than to have tried to spit out the puny efforts that pass for most fiction today (and back in the earlier part of this decade, when he wrote this). This novel has a great sense of place--a fictional terroir that's deeply satisfying. And Brunella is no mere clone either but the real thing, the equivalent of a wine of contemplation.