My God is Mitchell a thirsty man.
This book would be fairly interesting, if not for the egregious and gag-inducing descriptions of women and genitals.
On a character describing sleeping with a mature woman:
‘she has an equestrienne’s body, more spring than you normally get in a mature woman, and more technique than many a ten-shilling mount I’ve ridden. One suspects there stretches back a long line of youthful stallions invite to forage in her manger’.
Men’s erect penises are described again and again as ‘swollen’. Bear in mind this is a novel written in five stories set across hundreds of years, and yet at least two stories reference swollen genitalia.
A female protagonist is referenced as attractive again and again, with descriptions of men looking at her breasts - despite it not serving a plot point.
But perhaps the most horrific literary crime committed by Mitchell is describing a prostitute approaching a man who has 30 dollars… only enough for a handjob. Only then to see his ‘gargantuan schlong’ (yes seriously) and ask her pimp if the customer can borrow 70 dollars.
I wish I could bring myself to write a book review on the rest of the book, but it was mostly lacklustre, and certainly not interesting enough for my attention to survive being continuously beaten by line after line only worth being written by the horny mind of a pre-pubescent boy.