There's something of the 'pataphysical about All or Nothing, reminiscent of Voltaire's Micromegas and Jarry's The Supermale. Cowper Powys's naming conventions certainly are a nod to classic nonsense. Such names as Zug, Wug, Bog, Urk, Bubble, Squeak, etc. The story is rather frenetic from one surreal state to another. The absurd creatures and interplanetary travel is as farfetched as could be fetched from the imagination. The main protagonists, John o' Dreams and Jilly Tewky render the narrative through some sort of mythopoeic madness with plenty of philosophical, theological, mythological substrate to keep the reader intrigued. However, I found myself towards the latter part of the book in a kind of aimless drift amongst the manic plot shifts and to make matters worse, when arriving at the pivotal elucidation of all or nothing, I felt like Cowper Powys was telling me he'd had enough and that was the end of it all. It all seemed like trying for profundity a little too hard. ( )

Powys, it seems, chose nothing. more later. ( )