high-larious. I listen to this at the gym, courtesy of Audible.com. I've been slow to catch up to this, though i read and enjoyed On Beauty. The fulminations, the characters... summed up by the long-suffering (and also insufferable- that's smith's genius) Bengali wife says, "easier to find the proper Hoover bag than to find a pure Englishman."

finally finished it... it got quite long and in some places I thought she was just emptying her character notebook, but the plot comes together nicely.... the tone goes a little uncertain toward the end, but thankfully, the comedy resurfaces.

unforgettable characters, and gave me a whole new handle on london.