In the tradition of When Rabbit Howls, I Never Promised You a Rose Garden, and The Snake Pit, this novel by Jeffrey Stewart tracks a young man's encounter with and final release from paranoid schizophrenia. And like all good literature, this novel reaches beyond the moment to encompass larger themes: for its protagonist, Karl the small, is not only struggling with an emerging schizophrenia that increasingly boulders his life with unexpected moments of delusion, but he is also dealing with the emerging tugs of adulthood. Karl's offbeat humor works for a while to stave the problems, and indeed, his humor gives the reader a great many insights into the ludicrous machinations of the business world and the Mormon society that surrounds Karl in his home state. But then quips, puns, and humor turn sour as Karl is subjected to psychotic episode after psychotic episode until the resulting break with reality becomes catastrophic. But then a peace emerges at the end of this novel to save Karl from complete tragedy, to indeed leave him as an operating, normal human -- albeit our concept of normality has certainly been enhanced by the novel's end.