I feel bad, but Vollmann and I need a break. I hit the halfway point of Angels and I looked at the last half of the book and I thought about how long it took me to get through the first half, and I couldn't do it. Not right now. Not yet. I need something that moves a little. A little faster. (Repeat after yourself, Darby: You will come back and finish it. You will come back and finish it. Like, say, for instance, the same way you will come back and finish this one...)

I've moved on to The Savage Detectives, which I suspect is the sort of book I shouldn't judge too critically yet, not until I've gotten further into it. The judgment might be not so great right now ("Testosterone much?") were I not opting to temporarily abstain until further evidence is collected. This much the book definitely has in its favor (at least for now, at least for part one): it moves. Quickly. And I am curious about where it's going.