The structure and manner of narration in Asylum for Nightface make for challenging reading. Brooks experiments with narrative in most of his fiction, and in Asylum for Nightface he offers an interesting approach to a spiritual quest by placing nearly all the action in Zimmerman's mind. The plot is developed through memories culled from memories while he contemplates his dramatic act to find asylum. Much of the novel's suspense is generated by the scenes of Zimmerman watching Kollektible Kards, scenes in which nothing happens until the end of the novel. Usually, to create suspense a storyteller will conjure conflict out of action; a main character confronts and defeats antagonists in encounters such as battles or chases for which the outcome is uncertain. In Asylum for Nightface, Brooks creates suspense by the tension between his scenes at Kollektible Kards and the events in what seems to be...