I was honestly shocked when I saw the three existing 1-2 star reviews on this book - I had popped it up to put on our potential read list, because when I finished I thought "wow, that was great". I guess it shows that what works for one person doesn't always work for others. From my perspective, if you like reading John Irving, John Kennedy Toole, TC Boyle, Tim Robbins - you'd like this. It is a long read, so if your book club members are going to balk at 500 pages, this may be a book for outside the club.