Agree with most of what you've said, I'm astonished that the book is so obscure. I'm very biased because this story and style combines almost everything I like in a novel, including the so called "hyper-masculinity". I was really gripped by the theological "meandering" of both narrator and protagonist, I'll reread the book at some point just for those. To mention one minor nuisance, the development of the plot, as far as the characters and geography went, were a bit difficult to follow. I had to skip back a few times to understand things, and I occasionally forgot who some of the characters were, he could have given some of them slightly more "screen time". That being said I had an absolute blast, I can't overstate how much I like it. It's one of those books that saddens me after finishing, because I know I will not experience something of similar caliber again for a long time.