This book is wonderfully crass, sardonic, and deeply poignant about the ephemerality of life. There's so much here about idealism and the way it gets slowly whittled down into a bitter, cynical pragmatism by an uncaring world, and the remarkable and flawed characters weave together an intricate tale that's ostensibly about cricket, but eventually becomes something so much more, about ambitions, and successes, but mostly tons and tons of failure. I barely understand anything about this game but was totally drawn in anyway. Easily one of the best books I've ever read.