For a book that made me want to lie down, and, alternatively, throw up, I ended up liking it a great deal. I did a lot of skimming of the "Babbeltower" sections; it seemed enough to have a general sense of what it was withought going into detail. What was compelling, much like Still Life, were the scenes of domesticity and Frederica's attempts to build a new life for herself and ultimately define and defend her sense of "motherhood." As the mother of a small boy, I think this was probably the right time in my life to read it; I can't imagine finding this compelling in graduate school