It just wasn't working for me. Mr Haynes didn't have enough distance from the actions to provide any kind of satisfying or entertaining outsider view, and he was too empty a character for his limp attempts at engaging in the activities of #2 Minty Alley to add anything to the narrative. And I can't tell whether the activities of the house are themselves supposed to be entertaining or poignant or what. The humor is utterly poisoned by the appalling beating that the nurse gives her son in one of the first events of the book; and the poignancy sort of requires that we like the characters, which I don't, because every single one of them liked having the nurse around and turned a blind eye to her child abuse. Mrs. Rouse doesn't throw the nurse out of the house until she sleeps with Mr Benoit. She can forgive child abuse under her roof, but she can't forgive sex between consenting adults. Not that indulging in an affair with your best friend's long-term boyfriend is fine, but it's light years less repugnant than beating your child.