After spending a lifetime on the edge of reality, the author has gathered his glimpses from the down side of that edge. His earlier novels searched for his place in time and family, trying to define the edge with moral value. Those writings only confirmed the inevitability of madness. The later novels abandon the hope that reality can ever be grounded and search rather for an alternative. This novel is the last of whimsy before the darkness overreaches. It serves as the bridge between the hope of a purposeful life and the hopelessness of fate. As always, the story is there as much to explore the landscape of imagination as it is to expose the personality of its inhabitants.