Finished this novel today. It was kind of a snore. It is one of those books that is written so well that it is effortless and enjoyable to read, but when it’s over you have forgotten what it was about. I think the biggest problem is that it was very difficult to make any connections to any of the characters. The book is all about Vivian, this twenty something girl living with her parents in London. Her parents emigrated to London before World War II and are pretty boring people. As a result Vivian is kind of boring. She does a bunch of expected stuff, falls in love, experiments with sex and drugs, and is into fashion. Throughout all of it she is just kind of blah, there isn’t anything about her that made me love her. I have always had a little bit of a problem with weak heroines. It wasn’t even as if Vivian wasn’t a strong intelligent woman, she just lacked gusto. It’s an issue for me. Maybe that was the point? The story is mostly about her forging a relationship with her fathers estranged older brother. Her Uncle is probably the only interesting character in the book, a pimp and criminal he brings the only real light into the story. They meet by chance and he pays her to help him write a book about his life. Through Vivian’s story and experience as well as her Uncle’s the novel explores the idea of immigrants and their experience with prejudice and things like that. The book jumps around from Vivian’s childhood in the 50′s, to her twenties in the 70′s, and her old age in the present time. It flows very nicely while reading and I think some people would really like it. I do not regret picking it up, but am not likely going to think about it ever again.