I began reading this last year and forgot about it, so I picked it up again a few days ago and managed to finish it this time. This is a funny novel. I mean, it's odd. I really wish I'd read it when it came out, in the 90s. I recognise many of the settings, and when this was published, I was of an age with many of the young characters: early 20s, having my eyes opened to great art, classical music, essentially 'The Western Canon'. But this book is a little confused, to me. I think it was meant to be a portrait of a charismatic person and the byzantine social machinations in his orbit. But there was something sneaky about the way one of the storylines ended up being about stalking, and consent. And it was left rather unresolved. So this gets 3 stars for reminding me of my youth, but really 2 and a 1/2 because it didn't end properly. ( )