Izdryk's Wozzeck is a victim of the phantoms of his mind and of the grotesque society that excludes him. In a world where nothing is certain but pain, he gropes vainly for an Other and for the solaces of knowledge and belief. Fortunately for the reader, his tragedy and his comedy play out in a tour de force of a novel that gleams with dark satire and revels in ingenious mataphors for the modern human condition.