Disappointed. Threw it away. Got boring

I've read at least 10 Demille books and loved them all. This one was long, drawn out, and totally exhausting. I did not enjoy it at all.

Like all DeMille books this one reads smoothly. The author displays his uncanny knack for clever dialogue without the sarcastic wit of his later novels. Perhaps the most telling sign of the quality of the writing is that this book is not dated so many years after it was written.

I'm such a fan of deMille that I thought I'd try to read all of his novels. At his best, he is stunning: funny, gripping, with depth and sensitivity of characterization. This novel, astonishingly enough, is none of these. I've almost quit it three times but keep going back hoping it would improve. There is no significant central character, and those that exist are virtually interchangeable within two groups. Many of their names are so similar as to be confusing. By all means read DeMille, but please don't waste your time on this one. Perhaps this novel can be written off as juvenilia?