Reads like a mainstream movie. One with a personality-less protagonist, satire that alternates between sharp and sloppy, jokes that tend to hit you over the head like a hammer, and one that grows more tiring as you approach the climax. If I hadn't already read Black No More (1931), which treads similar waters, I probably wouldn't demand more than the one laugh-out-loud moment it gave me. And if I hadn't just finished a Faulkner novel, I probably would find the metaphors and analogies here completely serviceable. Two stars.