"This is an extraordinary book, rich in observation and keenly attuned to the inner world of its spiritually impoverished protagonist. The mosaic-like accumulation of physical detail--much attention is paid to food, houses, shoes, and clothes--and the author's deep understanding of and affection for her wryly comic but wholly credible cast of eccentrics cohere over time into a portrait of a troubled psyche that doubles as an indictment of a troubled nation, one consumed with technology and profits, plagued by demagogues and charlatans, and driving at full speed towards something dark. The final fifty pages--an extended sequence that is at once ominous, dream-like, and achingly sad--is some of the finest writing of the year, calling to mind the films of Martin McDonagh and the Coen Brothers. At once cerebral and melancholy, nimbly balancing metaphysics and the mundane, this is a book to be savored. It is an impressive achievement."-- "US Review of Books"