I hated this book until about 3/4s of the way through, then I would say it was tolerable. I think the main characters are pompous, pretentious, and the "love" story overwrought and pointless. This wouldn't be such a bad thing if the author treated the characters as if she knew this was how they appeared, but she seemed to be taking the whole thing very seriously. And since most of the book is fabricated, I can't help but blame the author for turning a grown-up affair into some kind of adolescent "meeting of the minds", "my one true love and soulmate" experience. Call me unromantic, but there is no "feminist" excuse for a grown woman to leave her very young kids to have a more fulfilling life as some architect's soulmate and to be a translator for a bitter Swedish spinster. I'm not sure, in the end, if the writer was trying to make this romance appear as ridiculous as it turned out, or if she thought this was a truly moving story. I really was not moved. I had no sympathy for any of the characters, except the husband, wife and children that the adulterers deserted. The book sort of redeemed itself later, once Mahmah finally called Wright out for being an egotistical jackass. I breathed a sigh of relief and didn't have a problem finishing it. The ending was good and the only really interesting part of the book. I can think of so many better ways this story could have been written. For example, why not make it about how difficult it was for a woman to get a divorce and still have access to her children? What about writing in some of Wright's wife's perspective, which I'm sure would have been more dramatic? What about focusing on the ending, which was a story in itself?
I will say that I tend to dislike books with a lot of descriptive narrative. This one has a lot, and I'm sure that is part of why I disliked it.