Even more meandering than his book I read earlier, The Physics of Sorrow. He has actually managed to create a novel essentially without a story. Endless short meanderings about many characters and subjects - toilets and bathroom history, flies, village life, language. The author also slips in and out of various personae. There is a loose thread of the story of main character's marriage and divorce. This provides just enough tension and continuity to tie everything together somehow.
You begin to see some themes, some motifs present in his other books as you read this one - homeless people, the marginalized, eccentric or downright crazy people leading strange lives in half-abandoned villages. Recurring images. Why? He is a very personal writer so it is hard to imagine the symbolism or significance.
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