I think it would have been better if he got into a few more scrapes, met some people, did some blow, went to a rave etc. The bit near the beginning where he's in Lowestoft is really good, cos he's so dismissive of it and caustic, so its very amusing. He spends ages talking about all these old halls that he visits, which is also quite interesting, but maybe gets a bit much. I think his style of writing is excellent, very meandering and different voices in the same sentence, so it's like someone sat in front of you telling a story. It's just some of the subject matter is a bit boring for me. The air of melancholy is pretty palpable, I've just been to a Ruskin exhibition and he strikes me as a similar outlook type person, just a depressive perspective on things cos of his early life experiences.