Exactly. I’m not quite sure why I “smell” anagram here, but I’ve become convinced the novel is built from surfaces below which lie alternative readings, so this does seem at least plausible. If, as seems likely, I do not manage to crack this riddle, I do hope someone else will (and will share that!)

GAME KILLS LAST NEOPHYTE might make best, but bleakest, sense of all.

I may well have a crack at reading this for Librivox once all three volumes are in the public domain — which, from memory, will be next year.

I read this a couple of months ago. It’s like a big, slow-rolling stone that gathers more and more emotional “moss” as it goes. By volume 3, my heart was near to breaking. It’s certainly not a fashionable book, and will never be a “book group” book, but I see it as a major Oz literary achievement.