#2 The Double Bind by Chris Bohjalian

Book #2 is The Double Bind by Chris Bohjalian. I have mixed feelings about Bohjalian's writing. I read Midwives years ago and the story still comes back to my mind occasionally which for me is a sign of a good story. It brought me in and kept me interested throughout the book. I also read Before You Know Kindness which made less of an impact on me. The story was slow and I didn't feel as strongly as the topic. So when I saw The Double Bind on the library shelf, I thought it would be worth a try. The book is about a girl who survives a brutal attack that occurred in college while she was riding her bike. We meet her a few years later after she has graduated from college and is now working as a social worker in a homeless shelter. She meets a mentally ill homeless man who had been carrying around a box of photos for years. After he dies, she takes the photos and begins some research to attempt to uncover the story of the man's life.
The story doesn't really get more exciting than that. Throughout the book I caught myself asking, "Who cares?" more than once. The book is redeemed by it's ending which is clever and unexpected. If you know the ending, please don't leave any spoilers in your comments, just in case someone wants to pick this one up. One thing I liked about the book is that Bohjalian had gotten the idea from the story from an actual homeless man who had been a photographer and left behind a box of photos when he died. These photos were included throughout the book which gave the story some reality.
So if you have picked this one up or read any of Bohjanlian's other stories let me know what you think. On another note, I am finding it hard to check out and read books from the library. Most of the books I want I have to put on a waiting list and when they come in I am usually reading another book and I don't have time to pick the new one up. So then a few weeks go by and the book is due at the library. I am grateful for the library system, but it is a bit tricky to create a system of picking up, reading, and returning that actually works. Anyone else have this problem?