This apparent digressiveness masks a breathtaking formal assurance.

In his review of the book in The Independent, Michael Bywater writes that "Sarah Bakewell embraces [Montaigne's] exuberant digressiveness with delight and obvious profound affection.

The result is a densely packed, multifaceted work that sometimes hovers on the verge of digressiveness, but in Mr. Guterson's skilled hands never succumbs to the fragmentation that might well have marred such an ambitious undertaking.

Works such as Jonathan Swift's A Tale of a Tub, Laurence Sterne's Tristram Shandy and Diderot's Jacques le fataliste et son maître made digressiveness itself a part of the satire.

Mr. Bondy did not attack him for such digressiveness yesterday, however, focusing instead on why Mr. Cutler had failed to call witnesses or why he had never showed the jury that other police officers might have given secret information to the mob - a crime for which his client had been charged.