This novel impressed me because the writing style seems to match the unique subject matter. The author seems to have chosen a style that conveys life at the bottom of the socio-economic ladder using equal parts audacity and abruption. The book contains a few experimental writing techniques along with many normal narrative chapters, and only a small amount of stream-of-consciousness (which is I suspect why the subtitle has the word “antinovel”). The stream of consciousness is used just enough to make things interesting, and occasionally it’s even more interesting when you read a familiar name and realize the stream you just read was an actual quote.

The behavior of the characters is strange and at times unsettling, yet still believable for the most part. It has shade-tree mechanics, waitresses, derelicts, secular poets, musicians, science fiction fans, and more. But how much of the novel is fictitious and how much reality? Fistulas are in this novel, and they do in fact exist. Second brains are in the book, and those too have been generated from live brain cells in test tubes. At times I wondered where fact ended and fiction began. The author seems to have chosen that boundary as the primary theme for the book.

The only thing I didn’t enjoy about the novel were the frequent sex scenes, but other people may like those parts.