Rating: 
Summary: Big Disappointment
Review: TC Boyle is my favorite author and Riven Rock was the only book of his I had not read (including his short story collections). I was very dissapointed in this work of his. There are no characters to which I was drawn, and it was one of the least compelling plots (was there one?) I have ever read. Great author -- terrible book.Tortilla Curtain or Water Music would be much better choices.
Rating: 
Summary: Realistic portrayal of mental health
Review: This book is a little slow to read but very well written. If you have ever worked in a psychiatric hospital, you will enjoy this book.
Rating:
Summary: Absolutely Engaging!
Review: This story is not at all a quick read. This story has to be savoured, because it accomodates so much descriptive detail - both about characters and physical places or objects. But everything is carried out in a very quiet way. I mean, that the reader gets to know and absorb the beings along the book. Beings that ihabit various environments throghout their time, this also being layered in an absolutely natural way. The reader never gets the feeling, that Boyle wants to go a determined path. It just happens - and suddenly you notice you have been transported in some direction. And you accept it and you are glad. The wohle book is the evidence of this dexterity. It starts, where it should start and ends how it should end - full stop No redundancy in anything at all, related to the developement of the story. Boyles manner and style suits the contents perfecly well.
For me this capability is the synonim to rich writing. About the story:
Reading other reviews or the publishers note is enough to be acquainted to the main idea. So I will skip the resumee and leap to make reference to the relationship between Stanley McCormick and his head nurse Eddie O`Kane.
For me the bondage between the two is the most fascinating aspect of the entire book. Stanley is cathatonic. And Eddie? If he is not, he certainly leads a similar life. Not in the pathological way, but in its contents. And perhaps,in order to understand Mr. McCormick, the only possibility you have, is to become as close to cathatonic as you can get and as Eddie does and did, profoundly, in the end.
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