Such an inspirational book. I will re-read this book for years to come! ( )

This was advertised as a coming of age novel which it only is in part. The utter selfishness of the protagonist was truly awe inspiring and left me no room for any empathy with him whatsoever. Having used and abused a great number of people including his own family and girl friend, got into serious scrapes with the law both at home and abroad, he is rescued by his family. Sadly however he seems really to have learned nothing by the end. Hence he has not really grown up at all. The writing itself rushes along at a solid pace, but is very uneven insofar as descriptions of place and people are concerned, indeed it feels like these were added in later as an afterthought. Yet somehow this just reinforces the character of the narrator who is only really concerned about himself. I feel like I got caught up in a rushed travel narrative around parts of Europe but the lack of real empathy didn’t really engage me. ( )