I hate to tell you, but I've probably seen "provocative, sensual, English historical novel" on book jacket. My memory may have mercifully blocked it out.

The words the critics might roll out for a book on poverty in America would be, say, "a gritty urban slice of life, a 'Grapes of Wrath' for the 21st century South Bronx." Have I been doing this job for too long?