Having enjoyed the film so fully, I picked up the book. Predisposed to enjoying (and writing) surrealism as I am, this book filled that love. Though, I think the film feels far more surreal, while the book is much more like storytelling -- tall tale telling. The book also curls up the lip, and puts the tongue into the cheek, a bit more than the film. Both are likable. A father and son story where the father is dying and the son wants him for once to be serious and attend to the bond between them that feels so neglected. The son at the sick father's bed begs for that heart to heart conversation, and the father quiets, his eyes look longingly, seemingly into memory, into nostalgia, a word of wisdom perhaps, but instead, "Did I ever tell you the one about...?"