I had so many mixed emotions about this book! I confess, I found it difficult to sustain around the middle when I felt like I'd been reading forever and was only half way through, but then the second half flew by! By the end I absolutely loved it - such an incredible exploration of people thrown together in one place at one time - felt like the Middlemarch or Great Expectations of its time. Like these classics, it at times felt very slow-pacer and rambling, but then I think this was sort of the point - to focus on the characters and their interactions rather than the plot - and once I started to consider it in this way I enjoyed it immensely. Almost want it go back and read the whole thing again - plus I thought the ending was fantastic!