The Failure (Unabridged‪)‬

The unnamed narrator is a hallucinatory trainwreck of a man, pumped full of drugs and alcohol, living in New York City in the 90s with his tortured wife, Lola. The story jumps through his life in first person, between working as a detox coordinator for recovering addicts, volunteering to help kids, and wandering the country while encountering monstrous visions of comic violence with Lola as he searches for serenity and clarity to escape a childhood of abuse and madness.

His only friend in the world is a flying pig named Pig who is both horrible and sort of supportive. No one else can see Pig. The book is a drug trip of a story through the abandoned, broken heart of America. It is a gonzo comic tale of tragedy, nihilism, and the need to deal with grief and the desire for connection with others.