John Niven The Second Coming.

Malcolm Bradbury ‘The History Man’ and creative writing tutor to a shedload of novelists, suggests that if you get to page 25, or thereabouts, you’ve made a commitment to a book and are likely to finish it. I used to be like that, feeling guilty if I started a book and never finished it. I started Siri Hustvedt, What I Loved, three times, but never got beyond the first two pages, now I know it’s good, very good indeed and I’d have berated myself for not sticking with it, even though I wouldn’t have known not to, because between those first few pages and the last few we usually know because the rules of consistency fling its shadow over us, or to put it more simply we fall in love with the characters the book and everything in it becomes maybe not the way we hoped it would be, but regrettable and understandable and it’s all our fault if it ended badly. I guess you know where I’m going with this. God strike me down dead, but I never finished The Second Coming. I even got to page 40 or 50, but I thought life is too short. I broke all the rules and ditched it. I thought this is Niven’s novel, Killing Your Friends, given a makeover and a new setting. I suppose we all repeat ourselves, but I no longer feel that need to finish every book. God I'm so mature.