Levin's imagination is vivid, but his prose is awful, especially in later novels, and this book suffers from an incomprehensible storyline on several occasions. The beginning is a real bore; the "utopian" concepts of non-violence and loose sexual mores has been done both previously and better, and part 1 is a real slog. The plot picks up considerably in part 2, easily the best section, with an original and intriguing twist (what I thought would happen at the end actually happened in the middle, so it was a nice surprise.

Minor spoilers below

For me, This Perfect Day falls completely apart from there. The protagonist kidnaps the girl of his dreams, slaps her around, and rapes her. Naturally, the woman falls in love and marries our hero. For me, it was tough to feel much sympathy for a rapist, or care about the results of his actions for the rest of the book.

End of Spoilers

Throw in a fun, but ultimately ridiculous plot twist and you've got yourself a mediocre, albeit quick read. Any points I may have mentally rewarded Levin for what I viewed as a nifty little satire of the mysogynistic times of the 60's and 70's in The Stepford Wives were immediately subtracted after reading this crap.