I have been told for years that this book is amazing and beautiful and I finally got to it and--yes, yes, it is. I loved the circuitous route through the heartache at the centre, and complicated multiple strands of feminism and art and bourgeois complacency. It reminded me a LOT of Mrs. Dalloway. The ending is a abrupt and unlikely and too happy--very much as if the author had gotten tired of writing the book--but the rest is so very lovely and poignant and thoughtful.