Thanks! It's good to no what chiggers are, and what they do.

As I said, I thought it a fine book--but unsettling to the 'nth degree.

Keep in mind, people, that Ebert has been through a personal hell lately. One after the other, these things happen to a person as life proceeds. In a real sense, after a certain point in a life, it is one loss after another all leading to the biggest loss.

To me, it is no wonder at all that we find a philosophical edge, an insight into the actual nature of this life, in well crafted works of art like this novel. The film tried and failed where the book succeeded. The film, for various reasons, was much more visual and graphic than were the pictures I allowed myself to see in my own mind while reading the book. I was appalled by the film's imagery. The book, on the other hand, allowed me to see the brilliance and the insightfulness of having the same ideas introduced to me. It helped to have a way to buffer the intensity as I read.

Also, in the film I was seeing the directors sicknesses on the BIG SCREEN. And they were designed to get the R-rating so the big bucks would come and change hands.

Art Thieme