The shifting between voices/points-of-view and time frames can be a bit confusing at first, but Banks is such a good writer that he makes it worth your while to stick with it. In terms of plot, this didn't give me anything new in the genre of big, rich, weird families (the Wolpulds are in the same class as the Ambersons and all the rest), but again, the writing rescues it from the mundane. As I neared the end, I kept thinking "Must.Read.More.Banks".