All Intensive Purposes

You could read Lee "sprezzatura" Siegel's ponderous review in today's New York Times Book Review -- me, I couldn't bear it -- or you could go by James Wolcott's take:

[A] third of the way through I knew that finishing the novel would be like trying to dig a tunnel with my bare hands, and that reviewing it would require tunneling back and submitting a piece that would betray the heavy slog of obligation.

Wolcott says his hopes were high, but unmet. That's enough for me.