I found this to be a dreary, utterly humourless story about a repellant cast of characters. Fortunately, Messud’s spare, unpoetic manner of writing helped the ordeal come to a quick, albeit unsatisfying conclusion of sorts. Oddly enough, the monotone narration, which with any other story would have been irritating, fitted quite nicely with the flatline of a plot. Some interesting insights into Balinese culture added a bit of colour to an otherwise uninteresting story.

Reader warning - it is not immediately obvious that this one of the earliest books by this author. It was published over 20 years ago. I wish the publication date was more prominently displayed.