This took a while for me to get into. I really wanted to like it - and yet for about half the book I struggled. The writing is witty and amusing, the plot cleverly constructed, but the narrator is just so *present*. I am someone who normally likes to get lost in a book. I enjoy a book if I forget I'm reading it, if the characters and the images are planted in my mind as I read with no intermediary. This was not the case with this book - the imagery is certainly vivid, the characters memorable, but the narrator makes himself heard. You can hear the author writing. You can see him doing his utmost to be witty and clever. And while his tone is certainly amusing, I personally felt it detracted from the story somewhat. 
 At least, that is, until all the seemingly separate threads of the story got tangled up into impending doom for everyone, and then I got so completely sucked into the fate of the cast of characters who'd snuck into my head that I finally forgot I was reading, and the book balanced into masterful storytelling. 
 The characters are brilliant and it would make an excellent film.