You can read this novel for its silliness & absurdity. Its author uses every trick in the book - and a few uniquely his own-to keep the laughs coming. You don't have to take this novel seriously. You may enjoy merely for the fun of it. You can read this novel for its wit & flights of lyricism, its clever turns of phrasing, its pearls of wisdom & insight. Or for its complex plot, its unexpected twists & turns; its cast of bizarrely colorful characters. You can read this novel as a parable: a man with no name enters a town with no name, searching for someone while not knowing who, or why? Could the author be suggesting something about the human predicament? Are the characters & conflicts metaphors ripe with deeper implications the author is trying to get at? Finally, you can read these pages as a satire in the tradition of Gulliver's Travels. A gullible stranger enters an alternate universe crammed with little people sporting enormous egos. Chapter by chapter he learns about the townspeople, unraveling their sacred cows and the petty obsessions that keep them at each other's throats - with hilarious & insightful results. Whatever the reason, you must read this novel. You owe it to your funny bone.