content: With all the rave reviews from reviewers I usually trust and having an affinity for most British novels, I went into this book with high expectations and was bored silly. With The Blue Flower, Fitzgerald fleshed out her characters, but the characters in this novel, some of whom are referred to only by their initials, remained virtually anonymous to me. The charm and satire that other reviewers have found in this were utterly lost on me. The novel doesn't have much of a focus and skitters from one character that you hope will become a focus to another, never really staying with any one of them long enough for you to care about what happens to them. I think the only reason I finished this one is that it is very short. Much longer and I would have thrown it aside and forgotten all about it.