Dr. Livingstone, I presume?

In the jungles of postmodern irony, such is the encounter,

Jonathan Franzen writes, of his guide to developing China, David Xu, "He had the fashionably angular eyeglasses and ingratiating eagerness of an untenured literature professor . . ." (92) Hullo.

I'll post a bit more on "The Way of the Puffin" later, as I did not hate it. At least, that is to say . . .