He finds himself engaged to two women. Then his mother decides to remarry. Coming of age, and the attendant loss of innocence, will always be a favorite subject for authors, and Bausch has skillfully woven that theme into an examination of the early Sixties. The twist Bausch has added is to undercut the prevalent belief that the early Sixties were years of innocence. Instead, in the tradition of Candide , he gives us a main character who proves to be the only innocent in the book.
Mom is an alcoholic.
The disappeared father was blacklisted. The school owner is involved with gangsters. One fiance would marry just about anyone. The other is, well, a prostitute. The novel is not flawless.