Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

The man obviously had some interesting life experiences, but he is obviously so very, very pleased with himself, drunk on his own word-smithery, shouting his humility from the rooftops. Every single sentence and observation is designed, less to tell a story, and more so the author can shine a spotlight on the poetry of his soul. But don't take my word for it. Here's a quote from the author's website: "In poetry, as in my prose work, I'm something of a neo-classicist. I follow a complex rhyming structure, and arrange all of my allegorical, symbolical, and metaphorical elements in accordance with an elaborately articulated artistic matrix." Great artists do not have an "elaborately articulated artistic matrix"; they just write. On just one page in this 900+-page monster, I wished he would skip the heavy-handed and self-aggrandizing "allegorical, symbolic, and metaphorical elements," and just tell a story. The moon symbolized love, the ocean symbolized love, love symbolized love... and then we ate some rancid goat meat, got high for three months, and escaped death -- again.