Dull.. ( )

What a fun, odd, and specifically atmospheric novel—I can't think of anything else like it I've read. It all takes place during one New Year's Eve costume party in England in the early 1960s, I think, with the guests dressed as 18th-century figures—many out of Don Giovanni, which makes me wish I were more up on my opera, but it's not necessary to enjoy the slightly plotless action: a one-night stand, a deflowering, a death, a pompous professorial lecture, and a bunch of missed connections with masks on that make the whole thing quite delicious. ( )

This book is actually funny. ( )