Pasquale's Angel

I'm giving up on this book- it just doesn't seem to be able to hold my attention, and I can't bring myself to care about what happens next. However, here's one quick passage that I liked:

But this was only a temporary disturbance. All disturbances in the calm unfolding of the city's routines were temporary, no more than an incalculably minute faltering, as of a speck of grit caught and crushed in a gear-train, in its remorseless mechanisms.