What a disappointment, after the delight of Parnassus on Wheels.

So much racism and sexism, makes this hard to read. Sure, some allowance must be made for its 100+ years age, but ew, those domineering men and ugh, that creepy stalker hero.

This sequel lacks the charm of Helen’s voice (narrator of the first volume) but I guess Morley no longer finds her interesting. Being a married woman, she is a resolved plot point, busy doing for a husband instead of a brother. Doing cooking, baking, cleaning, washing, ironing, and mending, and of course doing half the work of their bookshop as well. Where is the life as partners on the road, that they envisioned in Book 1?

And where’s that sense that Helen might, amazingly, be at least the intellectual equal of both her brother and her husband—though she herself would be far too humble (raised too female) to think so?

With all the racial slurs and jingoism it's difficult to hear the message of world peace and brotherhood no matter how long-windedly it's preached, but for that message, for that one shining dream, that the war to end all wars would do just that, I award a sadly tarnished two stars. Sigh.