To put it another way: there's a difference between "well executed" and "worth doing". McEwan's "Saturday" left me cold for the same reasons: it was very well-observed, everything in it rang true, but I felt there was an underlying lack of life in it.

You should try to get to Turkey. Everyone speaks highly of the southern coast of Anatolia and the Biblical ruins there. For me, the week I spent in Istanbul in 2008 was electrifying. (Signed in via Facebook, but it doesn't seem to get my name right -- this is William Whyte)

And yet in some ways American discourse is more formal than discourse in other Anglophone countries. (I'm Irish, living in the US). American "serious" papers seem unbearably stuffy compared to the Guardian or even the Telegraph. Former Senators are still addressed as "Senator" in the media, while in the UK even Tony Blair would now be addressed as "Mr. Blair". You've definitely captured something valuable, but it's not as cut-and-dried as formal v casual.