I had to force myself to finish this one. I love Lethem's style and concepts, but this story lacked any real plot in my eyes - the characters just bungle around while being pretty unlikeable. Chase was a loser, pretty much, and Perkus was one step from being the stereotypical smart-yet-weird, stoner, faux-intellectual. It wasn't that the story was boring; it was just useless and borderline cliche in some aspects. I couldn't empathize with a lazy once-actor, nor with an evidently smart but absolute nutter like Perkus. He reminded me of those people who smoke weed or do schrooms and think conspiracy theories up and believe they are somehow on or part of some "other" society that is self-aware on some other level. But they're not - they're just on drugs, and to the sober people, it isn't very exciting. The Chaldron obsession seemed more drug induced than anything else as well...was I supposed to read this book stoned? I did like how all the "answers" were revealed at the end, but really, my life was not enhanced by a 500 page novel about has-beens. And stoners. I'll still read Lethem, but I'm growing less and less enchanted with his fiction - his sci-fi (Girl in Landscape, Amnesia Moon, Gun, with Occasional Music) is infinitely better.