Feet of clay? Perhaps... it has come to my attention that he who has registered the RageBoy trademark skirts the truth. Sometimes. For example, before I dug into the Rants and Screeds I was pleased to believe the claim that Locke had been a brain surgeon in a former life. But monkey brains? Anyone who has taken a Chinese cooking class has had access to monkey brains. We're talking high tech sophomoric pither here... a far cry from human (as one NATURALLY infers) brain surgery. Talk about your inflated resumes.

And later, as a flack for the Carnegie smart people foundation, Locke leaves his phone number with potential interviewees. But the number he leaves in the narrative is Pennsylvania area code 412 information which I think trivializes the work and lacks a certain verisimilitude. Relying on the device of the 555- prefix jerks the gentle reader out of the marvelous suspension of disbelief into which s/he has been lulled. From RageBoy I expected more. Perhaps Cheney's cell phone. He's a public figure for christ's sake, you think he's gonna sue? But no-ooooooooo. Rageboy lays in the old (412) 555 NPA/Nxx and we're left shaking our head and wondering: "I paid $17.50 for this piece of crap?" I'll finish the book I'm sure, since there seems to be plenty of sex and drugs in it, not to mention the potential for violence and nostalgia-fostering references to old time rock n roll and a literary allusion or two which is not bad for a geezer who still can't spell Hiaasen.

But at this point, I'm hoping it gets better.