Acquired via BookCrossing 25 Nov 2006 – Bookring

I have to say that I didn’t enjoy this as much as I thought I would. There were moments of excellent description and evocativeness, but not much really happened and I thought some of the writing was a bit overblown for the sake of it. I can see why it won the Booker – it’s political, it relates the political to the personal, it’s very literary, but I felt it was a little self-conscious.

I mean, it wasn’t bad – there was a palpable sense of building tension and the relation between the cook and his son was well done, but I didn’t feel I knew and loved any of the characters.