A very enjoyable book. I'm about five years younger that the main characters, which was close enough in a lot of ways to give the story a nostalgic character. The characters are all well-developed; both complex and growing (it is as, after all, a coming-of-age novel) and the lot is interesting with unexpected twists and turns. I see that a lot of reviews were not enamoured with the final single-sentance chapter. I actually quite liked it, it conveyed a sort of breathless recounting in quite a special way. I read this book in preparation for reading his Middle England novel, so am definitely looking forward to seeing what he has done with those characters all these years later.