This book was fine. There was nothing offensive at all, but there wasn't much by way of conflict. Nothing really needed resolving until about halfway through the book. Up until that point, it was mostly about Indian customs. This can be done if the author is a very strong writer, but Zama is a new author, and his writing is not engaging enough to carry off a plotless book. Something else that bothered me? The love story hero was too perfect. He seemed to have no flaws whatsoever. He's smart and good-looking and rich and kind and then we find out that he does charitable operations on poor three-year-olds who have brain tumors. That is too much for me to swallow.