I was searching for something to say about the imposing length of this book, but it seems every other review has already said it, and indeed, the author makes reference to it a few times as well. Long it may be, but extremely readable, with its smooth, polished, conversational prose and unhurried but regular pacing. In time, it covers just over a year, in people it covers four families and assorted people in their orbits, in theme it goes from comedy to tragedy to romance to domestic drama, to campus politics to national politics to urban industry to rural agriculture to religious ferment to obsessive love to social class to music, art and poetry to corruption, reform, idealism and revolt and madness and misogyny and bigotry and catastrophe and riot and two weddings and a funeral and so on and so forth.

Despite its sprawl, it never seems to sprawl, and though there's a lot to keep track of, the leisurely pace and the distinctive characters - who are mostly lovable to one degree or another despite very identifiable foibles and failings - moving through their lives never seem rushed or muddled or melodramatic. There's no zany plot twisting soap operatics here, and all the twists and the turns of their lives, big and small seem natural and unforced. Indeed, perhaps a more ruthless author might have visited more in the way of loss and grief on the central families -at times they seem quite blessed, despite the upheavals personal and political and social going on around them. But life can be like that sometimes too, and the experience is so immersive and vivid and the world so rich and the families so alive it seems like a small complaint that they're not quite unhappy enough.