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It is an unique and overall a disturbing book. The chapters from Mao's voice (Particularly the very first one) are pure stroke of genius and fills you with a kind of dread that is very hard to shrug off. The subtle sarcasm hidden in the book is delightful too.

There is this feeling of insignificance that pervades the book which I found particularly special. Superficially it can be defined as Kafkaesque but it is more than that. The self-created hells of Simon, Ekrem and Minister D for example are something more than getting lost in the gears of the state.

I found the translation I read it from very weak; most probably it is much stronger in Albanian or even in French. I found the part about Lin Biao assasination superfluous and the characters had some very sweeping views about Chinese which was also a bit annoying.

I bought the book I read in Tirana as my Albanian friends told me that Kadare is someone definitely was worth reading; it was interesting to see the building I bought the book in as a part of the book :) I will read more books of Kadare, that's for sure.