were this a short story, it would probably be worthy 5 stars. the writing is so solid and concise that no chapter is wasted, each of them having an insane amount of details about the main characters. from the first one you can already feel like you've known them for almost as long as they've known each other. and that really takes skill, the type i would envy if i were a writer. however, since this is not a short story, some things inevitably bothered me. i wasn't quite convinced about Tommy's close friendship with his ex wife: it's never explained how their fondness for each other survived more than one decade, even though he only came to realize he's gay months prior to the start of the book. how their loveless marriage didn't make them bitter? i wouldn't care much for an answer if i was obsessed with the protagonists, but with so little conflict, their yearning soon resolved into a luckwarm affair. nevertheless, i've always loved that moment of epiphany when the full title is mentioned one single time, and it makes so much sense that it envelopes the book like a second cover. i just wish this had prevented the story from becoming boring somehow.