I made it 50% through this based on the overwhelmingly good reviews but my God was it boring and a struggle to get through. Pretentious is the best word I could use to describe it. I also hated how the one or two female characters were handled. Then I did some research on the author and it didn't take long to find out he is very questionable. The couple articles I read were disturbing enough for me to put this book down forever.