This is an ambitious novel. A period piece written in the style of the period, both wrenching and wryly funny, and with a broad scope that includes not just the human experience of its main characters but the time and place in which they live. It's a slow-moving story, though, and the omniscient voice holds us at a distance us from Vivian, Oscar, and Squire. I really struggled with these factors, despite appreciating the novel for what it is and what it's attempting to do. Ultimately a beautifully written book for which I'm probably not the right audience. I read it closely for over two hundred pages, but skimmed the last third.