At first this piece confused me a bit. I could understand the general idea of it but got lost in the details. I could understand exactly what Richard’s issue with smiling was as well as the fact that his refusal to smile but his insistence that he’s happy doesn’t seem to change throughout the story but that it succeeds in getting rid of Smiley at the end and not the beginning. At first I got the impression that Smiley made him kill his family and that’s why he couldn’t be happy.
However, after reading Smiley’s bio I’ve gotten a lot more clarity. Make of it what you will, but the bio is definitely needed to understand this piece if you do not know these characters. This isn’t necessarily wrong as it is a type of prose so a little vagueness might be expected.
Even without the bio though, this piece has great pacing and a fitting sense of urgency. The angsting never gets of hand or ligers in the narrative too long and that made it really enjoyable for me, even the first time around when I only understood parts of it. I'm really not a huge fan of dark prose, but I enjoy this on a certain level for the suspense. I must admit though this story is a very bizzare one. About as far from mainstream as I think I can imagine. A milkman and a unwilling serial killer couple with an adopted boy with pigtails. Definitely very unique set.
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