Census

A mysterious and philosophical novel. A widower finds out that he has a fatal condition that will bring his life to an end soon, so he closes his medical practice, signs on to be a census taker, and travels the country with his son who has Down Syndrome. The unnamed country has the practice of marking people who have participated in the census with a tattoo on a specific rib. The towns and cities are referred to with letters of the alphabet, and the census taker and his son travel from town to town, encountering all kinds of people and gathering information for the census. In addition to hearing the stories of the people he meets, the widower reflects on the life of his son, what the occupation of census taker is, and the life of his dead wife (who was a famous clown and attended something called The Shape School).

The world of this novel is intriguing and rich, but I felt frustrated that I was only given the bare outlines of it. What is this world, and why are things the way they are there? Why do they perform the census this way? Is the widower performing the census correctly, or is he really fouling it up? And while the widower tells us that he took on this job so he and his son could see the country, I have my doubts that this is really for the benefit of his son. I wanted more background, more detail, something to latch onto in the heavy mists of this book. I enjoyed reading it, but I could have enjoyed it more.