Orient Express

I finished such in well under 24 hours given the holiday. I must admit to a near magnetic attention to detail and plot; I was suckered and am pleased for such susceptibility. If this was but an entertainment, what can one say about Zadie's On Beauty? Both are ranked with two-dimensional figures and, yet, the gloomy Catholic triumphs while Ms. Smith flounders in academia where race-baiting and ass-fucking pass for currency.

A great deal of the narrative involves a Belgrade of 75 years ago. Aren't we all the naive godchildren of a sleepy burg, too removed from the concourse of bloody drama to warrant a rattle or screech?