I think it was Engels who said that politics in art is best conveyed by attention to detail, not by pontificating on ideas. That's why I never got the success of Gardner's Sophie's World in the early 90s. Lukes's 'novel of ideas' is a satire, of course, but that doesn't make it any less stiff read. Aesthetics aside, the caricatures of different political ideologies are obviously sharp and to the point. That said, perhaps nothing says more about reflexive capabilities of the author than the fact that there are basically no women in the story (with the exception of one particularly nasty feminist--unsurprisingly). I always considered Lukes one of the good guys, but not even in the updated (2022) afterword does he discuss how the Enlightenment is now weaponised for illiberal and bigoted causes by so-called 'free speech' advocates. Maybe this is why the satire about 'communtaria' with its feminism struck me as somewhat tone-deaf. What it truly shows is, of course, how much the world has changed since the original publication in 1995. Anyway, not a mean feat for an academic to write a novel, hence the three stars.