good writing...? i'm not qualified to say what's good and what's not, but this was more insufferable in some ways than robinson crusoe which was also a required text we had to plough through this year. actually scratch that: they're both insufferable. god. i don't know why this dude's supposed to be Great In Literature, but the professor who's handling this text is amazing so i guess we'll find out. chinua achebe's essay on this book is wonderfully astute though, even the problems in the writing it points out are worth bearing in mind.