One particular focus was the Labors of Hercules, which Spafford revisited time and time again.

The tasks Eurystheus gave him to do are called “the Labors of Hercules.”

Indeed, the novel reads something like the Labors of Hercules, if Hercules were wealthy and recalcitrant and overweight with a “large balding bullet-head.”

At times, the plot feels like the 12 Labors of Hercules, with a couple of extra labors thrown in just for the heck of it.

Which is to say, it plays more or less like any Terry Gilliam movie, even the ones that didn’t face production woes comparable to the labors of Hercules.