The life of Catzker is, in actuality, much darker than simply running to and from the sideshow freaks. His Jewish family is tormented by an anti-Semitic strongarm, while at the same time finding solace in their own forbidden affairs. Harry struggles, innocently and perversely, with his sexuality, with the war in Europe looming in the background.
Every character has a dark history and is haunted by demons.
Not many of them escape. Ducovny, like a carnival barker, certainly knows how to grab a reader's attention, by almost desperately combining any amount of sex, drugs and physical or spiritual deformity, making it literally hard to look away. At times, the author actually seems too interested in sifting through the dirt of humanity. Ducovny also goes out of his way to distinguish just who are the bad guys, and who are the good guys. With such a vivid setting and thoughtful ideas, Ducovny at times seems to get ahead of himself in his wording.