I don't know how, but all these absurdities work when Shane writes them. Like facial hair breakdowns and stuff. They are good. There's a village in a dresser drawer.
It's pretty abnormal poetry. I don't think it's supposed to be taken too seriously.
But something serious happens anyway. Like, emotional seriousness happens even though the book isn't based on that.
If you were to ask someone why this book works, that person might say, "It works mostly because whoever wrote this didn't try to make something work." Someone else might say, "It's funny." Someone else might say, "Actually, it doesn't work because it's a little too much of nothing," and then that person might think, "Actually, that's pretty interesting."
If you were to ask someone about why this book works that person might say, "It's pretty good."
Anyway, this book was a lot of fun to read.