text: With his susceptibility to ridicule and parody , his air of furtive portentousness , his apocalyptic Manichaean vision of purity overtaken by disease , his dazzling displays of the uncanny intuitive skills that sometimes accompany obsession , he was a pulp-fiction Dostoyevsky , an author he admired above all others .
  
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  The author was able to capture life at it 's best .