Sometimes less is more
I was grabbed by the premise of the book but quickly found myself irritated with Kelman's writing. She unnecessarily develops characters who make only passing appearances with graphic detail; her characters are bizarrely extreme and not-so-believable; and she uses excessive turns of phrases and heavy vocabulary as if she were showing off her handle on the English language. Kelman lacks subtelty where a lot would go a long way. It took me almost four months to finish this book (reading several others in between), and I wish I would have just let it go, but I kept hoping that this book would redeem itself. It would take a lot for me to take a chance on another Kelman book.