I don't know. This is well written and its characters are really likable, and you know from the outset that most of them are going to die and the survivor is going to be traumatized into complete dysfunction by the adventures they have. (Not an exaggeration; that is laid out by the beginning of the book.) I'm sure it has some really meaningful things to say about faith and the universe and the human condition, but I keep avoiding picking it back up again; that isn't the kind of story I want to read. I'm too genre and not literary enough for this book. 
 So, putting it down, and maybe I'll attempt it again some other time. Right now I really don't want to, and life is too short to spend it reading books one doesn't enjoy.