throughout the novel. In an interview with BOMB magazine, Cave noted, “There are a number of voices in the book: first person narrative by Euchrid, third person authorial voice, quotations usually from the Bible, either real or ersatz, constant changes in tone or approach to language, depending on who is talking. When I first started the book there were certain elements I wasn’t interested in reading about. When you read a novel, you have to wade through the setting up of the scene before the story starts. So I wrote a long prologue. It has no action. It includes documentary, poetry, maps and charts, in very short chapters. Once this is done, the actual story begins. The voice then changes between the narrator’s truth and Euchrid’s delusionary truth. The final book is Euchrid’s monologue which runs to the climax” The book is narrated in the protagonist's silent Southern drawl, which Cave writes in eye dialect. One particularly present theme is Man's inhumanity to man and their innate ability to fear what they do not understand. Euchrid is constantly under siege from those who perceive difference as a threat. The only other character to see Euchrid as something more than a dumb beast is Beth (and to a certain extent, her mother). Though Beth is taken into the fold by the Ukulites, she too is different from the rest. There is a strange transference of thought throughout the novel; her difference is seen by the community as godly, while Beth sees Euchrid as godly. Another theme presented in the novel is the beauty of things perceived as ugly. In an interview with director Lindzee Smith, Cave revealed, “The things that are ugly are supposed to be ugly. I’d hate to think the book was only about ugly things. It’s about innocence as well ––the beauty in that. There’s a cartoon image to many of the characters––Beth, who I see as the idealized young girl, perfect and innocent, seen through the obsessive eyes of Euchrid.” Publication history 1989, UK, Black Spring Press, , 24 Aug 1989, hardcover, 272 pp 1989, USA, HarperCollins, , September 1990, hardcover 1992, USA, HarperPaperbacks, , July 1992, paperback, 400 pp 2001, UK, Penguin, , 22 Feb 2001, paperback (new edition), 320 pp 2003, USA, 2.13.61, , March 26, 2003, paperback (2nd edition), 320 pp 2009, AUS, Penguin, , 29 June 2009, paperback, 324 pp Readings Cave did