well spoken class, challenge to find things to say, etc.

Luckily, I have grown accustomed to having nothing interesting to say, so I am not burdened by my inadequacy--In fact perhaps it is my inadequacy that allows me to occasionally say adequate things.

You know it is going to be a long and difficult book when 12 pages into 321 you feel disenchanted with the narration. Despite the intriguing use of language that Roy employs I still felt disillusioned by the author's habit/need of embedding stories within stories. I can find little justification for the choppiness of the merging of past and present, much less the parsing together of past with deeper past and with thicker background. What it boils down to for me is that I just do not have trust in the narration of the novel. While I am certain that Roy is a far, far better writer than I am, I do not think that gives her as much liberty as I feel she takes. While the mystical and floaty feel of the book might be important to the themes, I can't help but wish that the organization of the novel was a little more structured.