It's close to an extra star rating but I just don't give a hoot brother. The casual analysis of behavior and speech and posturing among friends/strangers is nice - there's some well-worded meat there, but it just doesn't bloom into something too illuminating. The metafiction, as in our semi-biographical narrator, completely deflated this for me. I recognize it, I just don't find it interesting or endearing. As a reader, please don't chitchat me or explain the chapter I just read. Maybe I'm not in a good mood for small talk tonight.