I loved Out. I thought it one of the most remarkable books I have read in a very long time. The characters were extremely well presented, consistent and believable. And the story was simply fabulous, from beginning to end. So I awaited Grotesque very impatiently indeed. But what a struggle this new book was to read! The story was uninteresting, the four characters uniformly dull, unbelievable and inconsistently presented, and the text full of dreadful American expressions and cliches and the most peculiar use of words I've seen in print. (What on earth does the author - or the translator - think the grossly overused word 'monster' means?!) I was at a loss to believe that the same person who wrote this clumsy and insubstantial yarn was the same person who wrote the clever and sophisticated book Out.