I think I'm going to have a stern chat with whoever recommended this to me. I'm not sure I understood quite all of it, but what I did understand was ugly, and not in a good way. He occasionally touched on a true thought, but then he'd skip away again into drudgery and twisted philosophy and dullness. Not even making exceedingly vague Norse references could save the book. In some ways it was good for me to read a book I didn't like, because I had been reading so many truly great ones that I was about to take them for granted.