The Year That Follows by Scott Lasser

Yes, I did just give this book the lowest rating possible. It's very rare that I read a book I don't want to finish, but this is one of those few. I will say that I was extremely excited to read this novel. It got excellent reviews and the book description made it sound wonderful.
Here's the book description:
On September 10th, 2001, Kyle tells his sister, Cat, that he believes he has fathered a son. The next day both he and the boy's mother are killed in the attacks on the World Trade Center. Back in Detroit, Cat - a single mother of a young son - decides she must find her brother's orphaned child. Nearly a year later that search is still underway when her father calls from California. Sam is eighty, a non-observant Jew who has lost both his wife and his only son. Despite his struggles with his faith, he finds he wants to observe the Jewish rituals of mourning. He strikes a deal with a local Rabbi: Kyle's name will be read aloud in temple on the one year anniversary of his death; in exchange, Sam will reluctantly attend services on this year's high holy days. Sam calls Cat and asks her to come, to participate in this simple ceremony - but he has another motive as well, a secret he believes he's kept hidden from her all her life.Cat's journey - toward her father, and her brother's infant son - and Sam's journey toward his daughter, his lost son, and a new relationship to both his future and his past - is the basis for Scott Lasser's superbly realized novel about families, and about how we live with the mysteries and ambiguities that inhere in our most primal relations. With marvelous economy and restraint, Lasser captures the complexities of home and heritage, the bonds of blood and the bonds of life and love. A richly resonant, exceptionally graceful, deeply affirming new novel from an abundantly gifted writer.

Sounds really great doesn't it? This novel was probably one of my biggest disappointments, if not the biggest. I actually did things to avoid having to read it, but since I refuse to put a book down in the middle, I muscled through and managed to survive to warn the rest of the world to AVOID THIS BOOK AT ALL COSTS. The best way to describe it: a waste of time. After finishing it, I promptly threw it into a box for my next garage sale. Sorry, Mr. Lasser, but you shot for the moon and didn't even make it through the rapidly depleting ozone.