At first, this novel looked pretty straight-forward. The subtitle of the book lays it all up. Buster Casey's life is opened wide by people who knew him and even by some who knew of him. So, what's special? I can't really write much without giving the plot up, which would lend itself to quite some internal stirring.
It's obvious that this book is written by the same person who wrote "Fight Club". Palahniuk's style, never avoiding, super-sizing or contrasting what's taboo in modern western society makes for very interesting reading where sex, death and The Nuclear Family are involved.
There are some quite substantial layers here. After 3/4 of the book everything was turned on its head. I thought I had this whole thing thought-out, but no! And then some.
At times, the dialogue feels as contrived and ham-fisted as if it were lifted from detective pulp fiction. At its best, it sails over the past, in more than one sense of the word, freeing the reader, making the plausible possible.
All in all, it's a very complex, finely written tale which is exciting, funny beyond time and rabid like some of its inhabitants.