I actually really enjoyed the main character in this book, unlike many others. I feel a little naive for not seeing the twist coming, but it was well done and the artistic metaphors as it played out were nicely placed. I originally wanted to read that because I thought it captured a sense of The Portrait of Dorian Gray, and I still hold to that notion. This book is all about the comprehension of mortality and the obsession with beauty but in a more nuanced and down-to-earth manner than Dorian Gray. Of course, Cunningham's masterful prose is what really sells it, as he weaves a believable world of ordinary individuals stuck in the doldrums of reality. Only Cunningham could make a middle-aged man's walk through the streets of New York so compelling and so very sad. Cunningham does love his pathos.