I should have liked this novel, but I didn't. It's Joycean, rowdy, raunchy, and reckless but the protagonist is not amusing. At best, he's a cad and a leech. He seemed violent and misogynistic to me. All the wit in the world can't smooth that over. I did like the Mary character (shades of Houellebecq's "heroines") but Sebastian rides roughshod over her (and everyone else).