In this story of a writer whose abandoned daughter reads and responds to his first autobiographical novel, I can't help but wonder if this also is autobiographical. Perhaps the part about the difficulties of being a Black American man in living up to expectations of being a strong father figure.
The character Mates is injected into the story with no background to let us know who he is, how his name is pronounced, or if he is based on a cultural being. He seems to be an energy that takes on life when humans do something for which they feel guilty. The episode where Ben confronts Mates is fairly vague, hard to relate to what is happening in the "real" world.
In a small way, it makes me examine my own assumptions and my perspective based on race privilege. But more strongly, I read this more as a voyeur observing a foreign culture. It's a good enough novel to pass on to friends, tho (since it is so far removed from my own reality) not one I will keep in my personal collection. ( )