I have to admit that this novel had what I considered a slow start. Charlie Barnes—a 68 year old guy from Danville, Illinois who never made it big, who had several failed marriages, who told stories that might not have been exactly true—is convinced that he has pancreatic cancer and will die soon. No one seems to believe him, because he's been that sort of man. He just wasn't that loveable or relatable for me. But after I looked again at the cover of the book and saw a glowing blurb by Andrew Sean Greer, whose own character, Less, has been one of my favorite quirky characters, I gave Charlie another chance.
At first there was the mystery of the narrator (which was also a thing in Greer's book), but once that was settled (or was it??), then the story improves by leaps and bounds, yanking my brain with surprising turns. Entertaining and philosophical. I recommend it!
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