The worldview expressed in this book is one that I reject as utterly false. It's not that I'm naive; I have lived through what can be fairly described as a pretty effed-up life; I can tell you a lot about violence, abuse, and untimely death. Yet I persist in my belief in an ultimate mercy and redemption.
The power of Johnson's writing is evinced in how it made me suspend all objection and be swept up totally and awfully into his blighted, hopeless vision. This means to sympathize, which is a bit ironic as one of the major themes here is the absolute and permanent otherness of every person to every other person. In typing that last sentence, another layer seems to begin to unfold.
I bought this due to its notoriety and former obscurity. It is absolutely nothing like anything I expected or could have expected. If any work can truly be said to be sui generis, this one can. And no matter what the cover art and synopsis may suggest, it is not salacious and very far from tawdry.
Let's Go Play... is a serious novel, and one of highly inventive prose that occasionally, unexpectedly, ascends to poetry. This lyricism is sustained through the entirety of the epilogue, which is a tour de force, an astonishing feat of literary technique.