They have been out of touch since the death of Glass's sister, mother of Tom, and this resurrected relationship sets off an inevitable widening of Nathan Glass's circle of friends and acquaintances. Much of the book tells the background stories of these characters, such as the "imp and scoundrel" Harry Brightman, Tom's boss. And that's what makes this a gentle ride - a lot of the 'action' happened in the past and the reader simply hears Glass recounting what he's learned. The B.F. itself covers just over a year in time and uses major events in recent US history as landmarks, such as Bush's first election "victory", allegedly itself a true folly.

The text is well written, but the second chances and happy coincidences do create a sensation that a spark is missing, that it all comes together too sweetly and too fast. Various signficant things happen (death, miscarriage, domestic abuse, etc. etc.) , tumbling out one after the other but with Nathan seemingly largely untroubled by most of them. So, although BF should be a comforting read it can leave the reader feeling unchallenged - what have we done to deserve this easy ride? Having said that, a happy ending isn't necessarily a bad thing - although here the happy ending has a major caveat.

Finally, the follies described in the title refer, not only to the events taking place in this part of Glass's life but also a project he takes up very near the start of the novel - 'The Book of Human Folly', where Glass would set out "every blunder, every pratfall, every embarrassment, every idiocy, every foible and every inance act" committed by him to date. These are very well-observed and will doubtless strike a chord with all readers, because whose life is not jam-packed with such follies?