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No one should bother with this book. Sure, you could argue that it’s trying to say something about identity, agency, mortality, masculinity, or purpose� but if you did, I’d very much roll my eyes at you. The concept is intriguing, but anything interesting about it gets absolute subsumed by the grotesque.

This book is absolutely packed with severe misogyny, racism, homophobia, hyper-sexualization, and even a bit of pedophilia - far beyond what might be considered just a product of its time. It's not incidental. It's pervasive.

The story follows a shitty guy doing shitty things and never facing any real or impactful consequences. If it were better written, it might come off as a commentary or critique of wealth, toxic masculinity, and moral rot, but the protagonist is deeply un-self-aware, and the book doesn’t offer any lens or distance that would suggest it IS critiquing these things. It just wallows in them; gratuitously; relentlessly.

This my first Jim Harrison book; that was a mistake. Eventually I'll have to read another because of his reputation, but it's now very low on my list or reading priorities.