Not until the second half of the novel to understand what it is about. The first part puts the player badly at ease in this superficial atmosphere of wealthy American tourists and idlers which we can not concentrate because they attract neither sympathy nor our interest. And yet ... The second part completely captivates us because it reveals what until then had not been perceived: désepérés efforts of a man trying to save the woman he loves and the cruel folie.Magnifique .