Warlight is a calm, meditative book w/out much energy. It took me a long time to read but on the whole I believe it was worth it! Strangely the book is marketed as a John le Careé style spy thriller. It couldn't be more different – it is a network of simple lives and everyday occurrences broken up by randomness and arch history. What it's best at is its nature, its prodding gentleness, passages of beauty and romance which mostly but not excessively come near the end. I love thinking about book-to-movie streams, this one is unworkable but manageable with time. The problem is that it's fairly standard and not at all litigious, it's defensive, almost in an over-scholarly way. So the name would change, maybe to 'White Paint'. He's clearly a good writer but I have books to read and bullshit to forget! so not going to linger too much over it.