I agree with Kalliope that “The twentieth century itself emerges as the protagonist of the novel.”. Sums it up nicely. A fictional autobiography that stretches from 1906 to 1990-something, taking in lots of places and characters. My complaint would be that it’s a bit disjoint in places and I would have liked neater tying up of loose ends, but of course if the author had done that I would be complaining that it was all too neatly done for a supposed real life story.