Finished Brazzaville Beach. I should have listened to The New York Times reviewer. Next time I have to pay more attention. This book is not up to Boyd's usual standards, and is in fact a colossal waste of reading time and effort. Although I appreciated the good writing, the plots and the delivery were flat and I found I didn't really care about the characters. Michael Chabon has talked about contemporary literature that is about not much and hasn't a beginning or an end, and this outing typifies that thesis. Just a chunk of a pretty depressing life.