This is the first book-length study of Howard O’Hagan’s Tay John. Tanner’s examination suggests how this earth-oriented saga must be read slowly, with full attention to all details of words and story, in order to appreciate its coded subtext, and how it must then be reread to experience the work’s powerful cyclic form. Her story draws on previously inaccessible material: personal interviews with O’Hagan, comments by his fellow writers, and an early editorial by O’Hagan on “Truth and Style.”