" As I began reading this book, I realized that this was a book that I had given up trying to read a few years ago. The main character Willie is portrayed to be a person who is drifting in life and searching for a cause to make his life more meaningful. He is pushed by his sister Sarojini to do something, make up his mind. He goes to India to join a guerilla movement, wanders around in forests with the wrong group. No one knows what the cause is, what the goals are, and in this process in between murders, lands into jail. Willie makes mental notes of his impressions of people in India and places he visits, the roads, the foods, his feelings...he spends all his time outside of himself, as an outsider. His introspection is infuriating and it was nothing but will power that made me force myself to complete this book. From the jail, Willie manages to extricate himself back to London where, typical of his drifting nature, he accepts the hospitality of his old-time friend Roger and starts living his house. In the middle of the book, he confesses that he has never acquired any skills to work because his father as a temple owner also did not have one. He realizes that not having to work, the only thing his sister and he were good at was finding faults, criticizing what others did. He enters in an extra-marital affair with Roger's wife for no reason but because he is bored and this was something that he had fantasized about 20 years ago. There are no moral pangs for any character in this book. Roger has been having an affair with Marion, Rger's wife is sleeping with the banker, the banker's wife is sleeping with someone else. The book ends with a marriage that Roger and Willie attend in which Marcus, a black man has invited them. Marcus's son is marrying a white girl and Marcus's wish was to have white grand children. The bride and groom are marrying after they have already had some kids. The book brings across decaying values in the moral area and nothing seems to surprise Willie. I probably do not wish to recommend this book unless you are a very patient kind of person. Will you get something out of this book? Yes, every book has something to offer - there are statements that can have profound meaning, reflections, Willie's musings as he drifts in his life. "
— Ritu, 1/23/2014