Listened to the audiobook. Took me a while to get into. Once I got used to the format, I really enjoyed the style of the book. But I enjoyed the story itself a little less so--almost like the format was a crutch for the lack of story. There were many brilliant passages and chapters--I particularly liked the scenes describing the night of the party in the white house quoting the "historical" sources: "The moon was bright" . . . "There was no moon." On the other hand, the book completely lost me in some parts. There are a lot of grotesque passages in the book, which usually do not bother me, but took away from some of my enjoyment here. I simply was not interested in about half the side characters. Vollman and Bevins were "played" very well in the audiobook--it was almost like a play. And the passages about Willie and Abe Lincoln were great as well. But a lot of the heart of the book was lost in the shuffle.