The author touches on Confucian and Daoist writings, famous novels, poetry, historic manuals, gardening and manual labor.
An alternative history novel which asks an question: what if America had elected a fascist government before World War II?
This novella could be read as one, that of split personality, but also could be a pathological angle of investigating the nature of mental illness
Hartright, the one who is doing the investigation, doesn’t only talk to witnesses, but also minor characters who can give him background information