Johnny narrates the top layer of the novel through the introduction and footnotes. He is in his twenties and works as an apprentice at a tattoo shop. He frequently drinks and takes drugs, and notes “I constantly craved the comforts of feminine attention” (129). Many of his footnotes list his sexual escapades, and he particularly fixates on a stripper named Thumper.

Johnny has an unstable childhood—his mother, Pelafina, goes to live at a psychiatric hospital after allegedly trying to strangle Johnny (the text makes it unclear whether this actually happened). Johnny’s father, Donnie, dies when Johnny is 10. Pelafina takes her own life when Johnny is 19.

Johnny tells many stories about his experiences, some of which he calls true and others that he admits are made up. He is an unreliable narrator, often contradicting what he has previously said or admitting to fabricating material. The novel makes it unclear what is exactly is troubling Johnny—it could be the substances, or it could be something connected to the manuscript: “Perhaps I’ll be lucky and discover this awful dread that gains on me day and night is nothing more than the shock wave caused by too many crude chemicals rioting in my skull for too long” (180).