A third of the way into this book I was ready to give up on it. Nothing was happening, time sequence was out of order, characters entered and retreated randomly... It was more like an author's stream of consciousness. I find those very self-indulgent, selfish, and tedious. I did stay with it, though, and eventually sorted out most of the details. It still annoyed me that Shields alternately refers to his mother by name or by simply "Mother", or perhaps it was some other woman he called by name. How are we to know? Was I supposed to be keeping notes in order to keep his characters straight? But in the end, it didn't make any difference. I simply couldn't get that into it, or identify with anyone. It didn't help that other than some place names, there was nothing to give this story feet. There were no time references (I don't even know what ERA it is, but anyway he switches places in the past at will) or little else to allow the reader to locate the story with any sense of reference. I finished the book somewhat wondering, "What was the point?" ( )