The Man Who Wasn't There: A Novel

I'm rounding up from around a 3.5.This is an intriguing, and ultimately a puzzling, book. I liked the premise: a few years after the end of World War II, a boy with mysteries where his father should be fills the gap with an ongoing daydream based on war movies. The role played by a character based on a local transvestite--or rather, the reason for this character and whether we are meant to share the boy's worries in connection with him--are left somewhat ambiguous. The turn the daydream takes in regard to the boy's counterpart is strange and not really explained. These are perhaps "literary fiction" tropes--and may be appreciated more by those who appreciate literary fiction in general.

great