When you’re toting around a book that’s 1100 pages long, aside from the looks that suggest you’re nuts, people often ask “So, what’s it about?” I can sometimes have a hard time answering this with even the shortest book, because I’m afraid of leaving out what might, for the person asking, be the best part; or, conversely, that I’ll include something that will turn the person off from the book when there are others things they might love.
The question is even harder to answer with a really long book. I mean, the book would have been a lot shorter if a question like “what’s it about” were easy to answer, right? Still, I think it’s a good exercise to try to answer this question, so here goes. No spoilers, but if you want to read the book without knowing anything going in, the way I did, you shouldn’t be reading this.