I really liked ths book. There was a lot about Rickie's personality that I could relate to and it is always nice when an author includes characters that are easy for me to dislike (his wife Agnes for instance). I thought his fainting was a bit melodramatic, but at the same time notice this sort of thing tends to happen in older/classic literatire- a man fainting for the same reason would seem distinctly unmanly these days! Aside from being able to relate to Rickie I also appreciated how the topics brought up really made me think.