For Will, those regrets revolve around his failed marriage and his daughter--and Stewart's treatment of Will's memories is emotionally raw and painful.

I was lost for months. Couldn't find my way back from yesterday, from the nights I was out listening to bands when I should have been home, from the fight we had about how much the stupid bedroom lamp had cost. I let her make me so mad I grabbed her by the arms and shook her, hard: and something came down like steel shutters behind her eyes. I was trying to get my shit together, but every road was a ghost road; one wrong turn and I was back to the time we were making love and I found her crying under me. No worse feeling than that, unless maybe it's Will, I want a divorce.

And that is Stewart's style: simple, direct, and devastating.

Luckily, Stewart has a twisted sense of humor and no fear of putting darkly hilarious scenes into the book to lighten the mood. One of them happens when Will confronts his ex-wife's new husband, Don.

Josie gasped. "Don! Oh my God. Are you okay?" she said, with such obvious concern that I had to hit him in the face with the sprinkler again.

It's a moment so obviously wrong, so obviously contorted, that the reader can't help laugh at the rightness of it. In a sense, that describes the character of Will perfectly: wrong, confused, flawed, and still a guy that will hopefully get it right before the book ends.

While the book does tend toward heavy, dark, and painful, it never drifts into complete nihilism. In fact, there is just enough room for some happiness. Not a complete resolution, and certainly not a complete redemption, but a positive note that makes you think things might be able to work out. And, in that, it is a very hopeful book.

For people who like tidy plots, Stewart's books Nobody's Son and Galveston might be more appealing. For me, though, the messy like life, jagged paths taken through Perfect Circle and it's spiritual brother Resurrection Man are preferable. Perfect Circle is blessed with exquisitely drawn characters, painfully real emotions, a difficult path to what resolution it provides, and some of the best writing in the field.