There is no need to pick up this book and read the reviews on the back because they are misleading, and there's no reason to read the book unless required for a class. You can capture the essence of the story from the beginning and believe, me the story doesn't change throughout. I forged on to finish the book thinking there would be some wonderful climax to the story or turn of events but found the same old boring characters and story with lack of depth, and if I'd stopped at the beginning of the book I wouldn't have missed anything. Leopards don't change their spots and neither did Dangerfield. As far as the writing goes, a grade school child could've written half of it. Not a literary wizard in my mind. I was recommended this book when at Greane's bookstore in Dublin and was told it was very funny. Not so. Not funny. Don't read it and be led on that it must get better as you go because it does not.