Brilliant; it's possibly the most 'difficult' novel I've read, more so than Heart of Darkness, due to the 'surface way' (though it isn't 'surface' in substance) in which it deals with the deep emotions of love/hate - or the seeming synonymousness with which it binds the two extremes. Its linguistic repetition seems almost amateurish, but is quite deliberate, and very effective in lending a linearity to events or passages, and also gives a sense of verbal stammering or swooning. It's very moving. Though predominantly and seemingly about the love bond sought between men and women, I cried at two passages involving the friendship between two men, the friendship as a thing of underrated and little-acknowledged rarity of beauty. Lawrence is right: friendship is underrated.

A gorgeous piece of work.