Casual racism aside, I loved this. I had no idea Shangri-La came from a book! I felt such a kinship with main character Conway, a dude who finds it "his fate in life to have his equanimity always mistaken for pluck, whereas it was actually something much more dispassionate and much less virile." He doesn't fit into society anymore, he doesn't see the purpose of toiling and striving, and he wants to just chill and learn and live! Same, my friend. Of course, he got completely destroyed by war and his equanimity, much like Shangri-La, may not be the serene utopia it seems. But maybe it is!