After reading this book, I know why it clinched the Booker Prize. Like last year's winner, Graham Swift's Last Orders, it is so literary. Nearly every paragraph contains a metaphor or a simile. It is good to have some of these sporadically placed throughout the book, but certainly not with the frequency seen in the book!. This book generated so much hype in the media but is a thorough disappointment for readers like myself. A tedious task to read.