Many more thanks, Eric, for the reviews.
Reading all the reviews, except the Dutch for me, was fascinating. If one separates out the actual descriptions of the book's content from the reviewers' reactions to the book's content, it seems to me a rather clear picture emerges.

The descriptions of content all seem accurate to me, so the reviewers are all clearly reading the same book, which is a virtue. The book is as full and overflowing and varied as all the reviews suggest it to be.

When one then looks at the reviewers' reactions, one finds the differences of opinion, which to me are really what one has to expect will be the case. We bring different experiences and literary tastes to the reading experience and this seems to be a book, perhaps because of its great variety, which will particularly excite those different reactions among us. Each reviewer identifies particular aspects for positive or negative comment, but taken all together those aspects still present a true picture of the book's story.