A great writer was grappling with an ambitious subject, masterfully treated.
First, it is a perfect construction, an upside-down thriller that gives the dead man's identity and goes back to his story told by his best friend, who leads the investigation among the key characters, especially women who were essential to them both, doubles too. The narrator recounts with thoroughness and depth a few years of life in turmoil in this little world of the American intelligentsia of the Reagan years and their lost dreams. It is also the explanation of the genesis of a story with the strokes of chance, the vain research, the intersecting stories, and everything that will ultimately deliver a book to a publisher or the FBI. Magnificent!