Delicious. Scrumptious. Finger-lickin good. Even as I was reading I was looking forward to reading again. Honestly I wish I had read this for class so I could pick it apart and write all over and really dig in. Anyway. I thought this was a near-perfect novel. I loved the cyclical storytelling, the movement between comment and narrative, the political impinging on the personal and the personal into the political, and I loved the two couples (though I prefer Thomas and Tereza). Points off for moments of uncomfortable man-on-woman gaze and weird sexual turns of phrase, but the content is unmatched. Can’t wait to return