A re-read, based on the LRB piece. What stuck out this time is the gratuitous racism – it's meant to be funny (even being set up as the punchline of a chapter), though it almost feels incidental, as if it could be snipped away entirely without changing the book. (It's odd this doesn't show up in the book's Wikipedia page right now.) But it can't really be snipped away – it's clearly part of the worldview espoused by the book.