This book was pretty disappointing, but only because it was completely enthralling at the start, chronologically chronicling the life of Thomas Man. I found the first, maybe third, really gripping and a five-star read. But then, time becomes quite malleable and the prose that made a lot of sense for a young adult character begins to immediately feel antiquated and you realize that is just the overall voice crafted for the novel.

The access we have to the character, even though it is fiction, feels really strange, as well. It is respectful... but also feels immensely obfuscation. It feels on rails, never deviating from exactly what is well known from the source while treating the subject far too nicely, and that broke the suspense of disbelief I had. The agenda is far too apparent and the time jumps serve to break the investment in the linear progress I was enjoying.

The queer longing is handled well. As is the relationship between the fiction being crafted and the author's life, but because my suspension of disbelief was broken, it all just felt like I couldn't trust the non-line-in-the-sand-being drawn. It's a really odd framing, in my opinion. But it seems to have worked for most people.