So this more rightly deserves a 2.5 or maybe even closer to a three, but my disappointment colors my reviewing and I expected to really enjoy this book.
This novel was, overall, well written in the sense that the sentences were well constructed and descriptions were evocative. It did, however, have two glaring flaws that I felt ruined the experience for me.
1) It was badly structured. The story, as far as I could tell, demanded the reader's sympathy (if not empathy) for the main character, yet was structured in such a way that made me feel distant from her. It tried for empathy, but did so badly and I found that many of Patchett's later narrative moves relied on a sympathy that she had entirely failed to build to begin with.
2) This had to be the most predictable and formulaic story I have read in a long time. Every single aspect of the plot was completely telegraphed and unsurprising. The story not only traded on cliches, it made no move to get beyond them.
Also, at one point, Patchett used "enormity" to mean enormousness. It doesn't. I nearly returned the book to the library then and there.
So, yes, a huge disappointment especially because, on the level of basic sentences, she is clearly a skilled craftswoman.