The first part of the book, although saddled with an awkward and intrusive framing device, is a fascinating deep dive into art history and the development of photorealistic illustration styles. It gets a little bit technical, with discussion of pens and brushes and such, but absolutely friendly to a general readership.

But after a bit of this, there's an abrupt shift in which you'll encounter some variation of the word "metaphysics" about a thousand times and find yourself being pulled down various rabbit holes with Sim as he attempts to connect dozens and dozens of comic strips, real people and events, fictitious people and events, unexplained exictement over inconsistent and vague numerological observations, what are most likely coincidences and/or lazy writing, to form a picture of, well, reality itself, in which, apparently, one man, Ward Greene, used occult powers to manipulate people and influence events in the past, present and future.

I think that's really what it's about. Sim pretty much says so, I think, as does Grubaugh when he shows up at the end to wrap things up.

For instance, although this is not about Greene but about William Seabrook, who meets Greene in 1912 and is also interested in the occult:

…Seabrook's pre-Ward Greene presence at the Atlanta Journal in 1909 begins triggering far-reaching metaphysical effects… backwards and forwards in space-time… He's 20 years away from the publication of his 1929 Haitian voodoo expose, The Magic Island… but, because he will write it — he always wrote it — always had written it, it affects events in his past, which is simultaneously his present and which is simultaneously his future.

It's not persuasive but the notion is at least more or less comprehensible, even if the mechanics of how such a thing might be achieved and what the limitations and ramifications of such powers might be, details like that, are completely absent.

And there's such a dizzying deluge of names, dates, stories, it's like trying to keep track of a single snowflake in a blizzard.

For instance: "Linking Toni Benson to 'Bad Impression's 'Peggy' to Sara Jane Strickland to Bessie Montez to Babs and Belle to Jane and Peggy to Peggy and Raymond to Mary Drake to Maid Margaret Smithers to Margaret Blythe to Hester Prynne to Ann Hibbins to Hester Prince to Hester Prentiss".

I can't remember what any of that was supposed to mean and I'm not sure I understood it either time I read this book.

Central to all of this is Margaret Mitchell, author of Gone With the Wind, by the way.

While I had originally planned to write a much longer piece in which I assiduously go through my notes and argue, comment and observe, just thinking about it makes me feel weary.

If any bit of this interests you at all, then I highly recommend the book. It is nothing if not impressive and you're unlikely to exhaust its potential in one trip from front cover to back.