I loved this little book. In the back Kimmel says that it's really a book about ideas, but thank goodness all of the academic philosophies which you have to wade through in the reading were summed up in the preface as "a fool's thoughts". The plot bore that out--you don't have to subscribe or even care about them to see how they crumble to dust under the weight of things that are real. The title is deliciously ironic: the solace of leaving early is the comfortable habit of both protagonists, and you get to see how, in the end, there's something mercifully more compelling than the promised solace of insulating yourself from relationships.