I was surprised by how much I enjoyed this book - the subject matter seemed pretty grim to me from the outset. But the writing style was very gripping, the narrative voice strong and complex, and the characters well-drawn. My guess is that this book is one of the first psycho-dramas ever written - though what-do-I-know - and as such it does a pretty decent job. That said, there were some parts that I simply didn’t care for - particularly the prehistoric flight-of-fancy at the end, the oddly heteronormative conclusion which has pretty thin grounding in the rest of the narrative, and the initial star-roving bit. Setting that aside and suspending disbelief on the more science-fiction-y aspects of the story, it’s altogether pretty enjoyable.

I am a bit conflicted about the various interstitial bits in which the narrator jumps through time into different places and personae. On the one hand these are plain fun and remind me a bit of Reading Rainbow. On the other hand, let’s face it, they have almost no relation to the rest of the story, and I think we would have lost very little in just excising those parts altogether, or at any rate making them much shorter. But perhaps I’m missing something there.

The expositions on spirituality and memory, and the persistent trickle of societal condemnation - the assertion that together we are all collectively guilty for the brutality of the prison system - were fascinating, and very interesting complements to one another. The concluding chapter, with its exposition on history and our sort of collective memory as a species, was a really interesting way to tie that all together. The fact that the narrator is a prisoner gives him additional credibility, and places this book in the same strand of social critique as What is the What.

On the whole, it’s fascinating food for thought, and I’d recommend it - but please note that you’ll have to flip through a few bits and pieces along the way!