I love historical novels about normal people, where the setting, the details, the events are all well researched even with some known historical figures making their appearances but the story is from the view of a person who did not exist or only in the sense that there may have been someone very like him/her living their lives in that era. This book is one such book about a glove-maker's physician son, his rise and fall in the court of Charles II and his constant indulgence of and struggle with his debauchery and indolence. The flawed yet likeable character of Merival's life seems to be a metaphor of King Charles Act of Oblivion, where the act of forgetting itself becomes the act of remembrance.
I am looking now for the sequel to this book.