I'm surprised that I was so strongly sucked into this one, at the beginning. It's pages and pages and more pages of long and graphic descriptions of the rehabilitation of a burn victim, who used to be a hard-living porn star. Not exactly my favorite genre, but still, oddly compelling.

Then enter Marianne. Shortly after her arrival some of the chapters become devoted to stories she relates to our anti-hero, the burned guy. Stories that occurred thousands of years ago, of her friends and other people she knew.

I had the opposite reaction to these tales of the past; they made me want to quit the book. Instead, I just skimmed/skipped all of them, preferring to read the stories that focused on the present. In so doing, I probably missed (if you could call it that) out on 25-30% of the book.

I liked a lot of it, but mostly the part from the beginning. Things got pretty weird as the past and present become more connected, and the ending felt a bit hokey. Glad for what I read, but I wouldn't rush out to read his next novel.