Two years ago I gave this book up right in the middle, when it looked like it was going to double-back and go through several hundred more pages of exposition and character development. Turns out there was some of that, but I also kind of gave up just before the story started paying off. I still feel like I spent most of the book being bored, and there’s not a single character I care the least bit about, but it’s a good story. That just doesn’t work for me. And is way too similar to the only other Irving book I’ve read before, The World According To Garp.