I Saw a Man by Owen Sheers

Published by Nan A. Talese/Doubleday on June 9, 2015

Coping with a sense of responsibility for an unintended death is a theme that I Saw a Man explores from three different perspectives. The theme is gloomy and so are the characters, but I can't fault the novel for exploring the pain and despair associated with guilt and loss. Life is sometimes gloomy and serious literature should reflect that.

Getting to know a neighboring family for the last seven months has been a healing, settling experience for Michael. Having moved back to London from Wales to make a new life after his wife's death, Michael fears the company of others. At a party hosted by his neighbors, Samantha and Josh, Michael feels himself "adrift, the only seeing witness in a room of the chattering blind."

Michael is haunted by the loss of his wife, whose fate we learn only after nearly half the novel has passed. So haunted that he believes he catches a glimpse of her in his neighbor's house. The story takes a shocking turn at the midway point when another event occurs that jars the lives of Michael and his neighbors.

The structure of I Saw a Man is odd. The novel begins as Michael enters his neighbors' house through an open back door to look for the screwdriver he loaned them. Halfway through the novel he is still looking, having made little progress while moving through the home. Most of the novel is filled with backstory, memories of Michael's past that are triggered by his benign trespass as well as the story of another man whose life is tragically linked to Michael's.

The other man is Daniel McCullen, a pilot who flies drones in Afghanistan from a base in Nevada. McCullen is dealing with his own kind of pain. McCullen's story begins to move to the forefront in the second half, then all but vanishes. At its best, McCullen's story raises profound and discomforting questions about the relationship between money and war and the death of innocents.

The plot is a bit thin, an improbable set of coincidences that allows Owen Sheers to reveal the inner workings of his brooding characters. Decisions that Michael makes at the novel's end struck me as particularly contrived. Daniel might be the most interesting character, making his disappearance from the story disappointing.

The novel's exploration of the impact that related tragedies have on different characters is insightful, but give that this is a relatively brief book, there are too many redundantly expository passages that begin with phrases like, "Months passed and Michael still felt ...." In other respects, Owen Sheers' prose is both subtle and elegant. I therefore have a mixed reaction toward I Saw a Man, but in the end I recommend it to readers who are not turned off by literary efforts that are less than cheery.

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