Night of the Crabs has no pretentious quote from a great work to open it. Smith does not need to elevate his work with Shakespeare, Milton or Exodus; he knows his words can stand without the crutch of the classics. He merely requires a dedication, the simple: ‘To Jean, who has to put up with it all.’ We are left to wonder what ‘it all’ is; the mind does boggle at what a spouse must have to go through as her husband churns out another few thousand words of seaside devilment.