What's the deal with all these detached, depressed, introspective and yet completely vacuous female main characters? I really didn't understand the point of this book about a very mentally ill American housewife living with her Swiss husband and their children abroad in Switzerland. So much awful in this book, but I kept reading, hoping I'd get some more clarity into Anna's psyche. Nope. The fancy wordplay and poetic prose does not elevate it in my estimation, either.