I read this over a long period, and 'enjoyed' it very much. It's a majestic work, but very depressing. I found it quite heartbreaking, as to a large extent it is a book that captures people's memories of life defined by failure, and catastrophic failure at that. Failure of ideology, failure of hope, personal and professional failure.

That said, there is redemption here, but redemption can be a heavy thing to come at the end of ones life!