Its ambition is clear, not least in its sheer length - I read it on kindle but it's close to 1000 pages in physical form - but also in the number of characters, their intersecting stories, and the back and forth through time within the umbrella goal of evoking NYC in the late 70s. For me, it was ... fine. Well written, well put together, enough of a through-narrative (organised around the mystery of Sam's shooting and with the city's July 1977 blackout as its climax) to hold the interest, characters who weren't jarring (but who never quite lived and breathed either) and some decent imagery and themery. But nothing revelatory either - even in the lower-bar sense of that word.
