I enjoyed the cynical discourses on a wide range of topics and the use of foreign languages to introduce one-word concepts not having an exact English translation throughout the book. These untranslatables and Latin phrases in the audio were correct as far as I could follow. Edwin's ennui early in the audio was contagious. I almost stopped listeneing to it. I glad I didn't. The crusty drifter who was Edwin's self-taught intellectual equal was an unexpected payoff and the impending decline of civilization sprung from the banal beginning of the book almost seemed believable---at least I was able to suspend disbelief and enjoy the plot resolution. I enjoyed the reader's ability to bring the disparate characters to life and deadpan his way through the theater of the absurd.