The start of my Dennis McFarland odyssey. Music Room, which I read a while ago, was apparently one of his later novels. And I'm sorry to say that compared to The School for the Blind, it shows. SftB is much less compelling than Music Room and doesn't seem to flow as well. Yet the introspective world that I loved so much in Music Room is already starting to be developed in SftB. McFarland's characters are, in general, much more academic and introspective than the average Joe Chardonnay. I'd say 7/10. Not phenomenal.