Put-downable, and not kindly.

I went through this across about four commutes and I couldn't tell you where one ended and the next began, which is trouble for a book about paying attention.

Bits of it are lovely. The river, obviously. The ferryman. There's a passage about listening that I read twice and then read out loud to nobody, quietly, which is not something I normally do on the 7:12.

But so much of it is a man walking away from things and being told he was right to. Everyone he meets exists to advance him a stage. Kamala deserved better and I'm not convinced the book knows that. I kept waiting for somebody to push back on him properly and nobody ever really does.

Six, because the river passages are genuinely good and because it's short enough that the thin parts never get a chance to become annoying. I finished it somewhere around Twyford and had started something else before we hit the tunnels.