I'm glad you were not disappointed, when you'd been looking forward to it so much! Even if you didn't love it as much as JSMN...

There were, however, one or two instances of a kind of sordidness which is something I associate with modern books, and which I didn't like any better here.

Huh, interesting. In fiction, I tend to read mostly SF, fantasy and historical novels (which could be written long ago or written today, but in historical settings). But I don't know if I am analytical enough to know why that is...