But smart informedness, spot-on dialogue and characters caught with caustic exactness make this ambitious novel a compelling — and, at its best, scorchingly satiric — read.

Is this your most ambitious novel so far?

But it's a stunningly ambitious novel, and on balance a successful one.

Jake meets with her several times working on an ambitious novel.

They were all fuelled by his bitter resentment at his far more ambitious novels being overlooked.