Ummm where to start?<br>I agree with all of you, but there is a little discrepancy between our understanding of the book. I'm from Slovakia...I'm sure you're aware of the regime we lived in before 1989 and that's how I understood the book; as a critique of degenerated socialism as a critique of tatolitarian rule under the nice mask of communism ...<br>All in all it is a prophetic novel because it did happen in eastern europe.<br>