I had to start the audiobook over after I realized I had gotten a couple chapters in and hadn't absorbed anything. But, after getting a better sense of the characters, I did find myself more invested and by the last 30% I was making excuses to keep the audiobook on and not wanting to stop. I will say that this felt like a case of the Earn Your Happy Ending trope where the '"good" characters were constantly being thwarted by a surrounding cast of closed minded and selfish people. There are some really awful characters who are like the worst kind of people that a lot of us unfortunately have encountered in real life, but it feels a bit worse because society as a whole seems to be on their side. If I didn't like  Constance, Harris, and the Motorcycle and Flying club girls as much as I did, I might have been too frustrated with the other characters to enjoy the book. I did wonder throughout the chapters why we were getting so much of

the perspective of the kind German waiter. I wish I hadn't wondered, what a horrible and senseless way to end that story. I suppose that's the point, though.