Reading this was a struggle for most of the book, for the pure and simple reason that I was not enjoying it. I had to make a list to try and identify the individual reasons why to put them in a review, because my gut reaction was just "no". Firstly my overall impression: it is far, far too long. Over 400 pages in my copy, and more hours spent reading than I feel it deserves. The story it tells could have been told in less than half this length, and I think such cutting would actually make the book much more effective overall. The story in itself is reasonably interesting, but it dawdles and sinks into far too many holes of hyperbole, rhetorical questions and long paragraphs with phrases all starting with the same opener: for instance, at the end of Part I - "as Mark explained... as Mark told him... as Mark said.. as Mark said..." This device can be very powerful, but the author did this so many times I started to get very irritated. Similarly, a large number of chapters start at a point a bit further on from the end of the previous one, but then 'flashback' to catch you up on the intervening time, but again Coake does this in an almost identical manner every time. Secondly, there is very little change in tone throughout. Of course, dealing with such subject matter, I hardly expected the book to be filled with sunshine and laughter. But the tone is so static, stuck in almost Frankenstein-esque valleys of self-pity and 'woe-is-me-oh-how-will-I-ever-feel-even-a-glimmer-of-happiness', that it ruins the sadness, in a way. With no break from which to return to more melancholy passages, Coake resorts to using ever more exaggerated descriptions that feel ridiculous. This has a lot to do with my impression of the overall style: I think a combination of the above led me to have virtually no sympathy for any character; I simply became bored when, by halfway through, the plot had barely finished covering ideas which are explained in the blurb. The writing style is very average, at times trying to be highly moving I think but coming across as 'try-hard', and his attempts to write more romantic moments are so cliche and predictable they're simply funny. Towards the end, it started to get a little more interesting, but this was only the last 70 pages or so. The very end was disappointing and my final thought was "finally, I've finished it." It says on the back that he wrote some highly-acclaimed short stories, which might explain why the book is so very long, if he had in his mind the goal of a full-length novel and was used to writing in a much smaller frame. Still, there are so many books out there that are much, much better. I would not recommend spending time with this one.

I looked forward to reading this novel and was intrigued by the premise but sadly the book, for me, lacked something essential and that was atmosphere. I found the book passed a few hours well but certainly didn't blow me away either with its characterisation, writing style or plot.