It took me a while to get into this, but about half-way through things started to click and I was interested until the end. This is one of those books that one admires more than likes, I think - at least it is for me. I found the prose a bit ponderous, a wee bit turgid if I'm honest. And there's not really much of a plot, just a narrative that doesn't really string together several characters. Where the great strength lies here, though, is in the atmosphere. All credit to Hazzard, the emotion in this book is on point - WW2 is over, and people are trying to pick their lives up and go home - go back to England, to Australia, to get out of Japan and China. They've been part of this hideous extraordinary thing, and now that it's over the shift back into normal life is disorientating and almost incomprehensible.

So, yeah. Stick with it, and read for the atmosphere, and it does become rewarding. Not extraordinary, not even that likeable to be honest, but certainly a very clear account of a feeling that an awful lot of people must have had.