On the surface this is a sharply drawn pulp story about a man with a violent undercurrent. Thompson shows off his deftness in crafting a near perfect genre piece complete with Freudian origin discoveries, gritty and poetic flourishes of monologue, and even a femme fatale. What makes this novel so much more than pulp is that much like the main character, there is a great deal going on under the surface. Even more interesting is that knowing what is going on doesn't detract from the tension in the story or any of its many ideas, it merely compounds them.

"Actually, well, logically, and you can't do away with logic, there 'wasn't' anything. Existence and proof are inseparables. You have to have the second to have the first." pg. 157

So says the main character near the end of the story, leaving the reader with a glimpse of where Thompson positioned him in relation to competing characters. This theme of re-contextualized ideas is certainly a strong point of access for much of what is going on. As one character says near the end: "A weed is a plant out of place." That weed could be viewed as our main character in relationship with the people in his small town, with morality, with law enforcement, with the truth, with reality, or even with the sum of himself. It could even be the main character as the story's supernatural narrator in relationship to the reader. All of these branches on the theme of re-contextualized ideas could lead to hours of discussion.

This is a rich and impressive novel. I will certainly be returning to Thompson's other works.

Highly recommended.