Here’s another story that was put on my TBR by John of The Book Mine Set.  He said Chabon is, “a cross between John Irving, Franz Kafka, and a screenwriter for CSI.”  I am not a fan of CSI, I’m not that familuar with Franz Kafka, but I do like John Irving.  That was enough to entice me to read The God of Dark Laughter.

Thirteen days after the circus left town, a man was found dead in the woods with his entire scalp and face removed  (The CSI part).  He was wearing a threadbare velvet purple suit and a bright orange waistcoat.  There were patches of clashing plaids all over. 

“It was on account of the patches, along with the victim’s cracked and split-soled shoes and a certain undeniable shabbiness in the stuff of the suit, that the primary detective—a man not apt to see deeper than the outermost wrapper of the world (we do not attract, I must confess, the finest police talent in this doleful little corner of western Pennsylvania)—had already figured the victim for a vagrant, albeit one with extraordinarily big feet.”
This quote made me think of Barney Fife on The Andy Griffith Show (me show my age again). LOL!
The story is narrated by Edward D. Satterlee, the district Attorney of the small county.  The reader get to know some about Edward.  His son had died and then his wife committed suicide. That’s when he started drinking whiskey, which he kept behind the dictionary in his office.   He started living in a boarding house after that.  He was there eating his supper when the call came in. (this was the John Irving part).
This was a very strange story and the crime was quite graphic.  I don’t usually like the crime genre but there was enough in this story for me to enjoy. In fact, I enjoyed it quite a bit!  You can read the story, here.

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