Bugs vs the Power Company
I've always admired Vollmann, but I've never found him as engaging as he was in his first novel You Bright and Risen Angels. I'm *still* waiting for him to write the sequel he included the chapter titles for in that book.

Which one was trained as a ninja? I remember reading a book in this style about an American who trained in nijitsu. His wife got murdered by gangsters while he was in Japan, natch, giving him license to slaughter the bad guys with guns, throwing stars, swords and dim mak.