Flesh

flesh.jpg
Author: David Szalay
Published: 2025
Rating: ★★★☆

Not sure I’ve ever read a book where the protagonist is so absent, and yet always present. Absent isn’t quite right: more silent. He barely speaks, but thinks a lot, but the thinking is short, uncomplicated, and with little in the way of self analysis. He is just passively along for the ride wherever life takes him. Good but not great and not the incisive portrait of hyper-masculinity expected.