*Aimless 30-year old male protagonist, left by wife
*Association with adolescent girl
*Other female figures as objects of sexual desire
*Suggestions of incest
*Communication with alternate reality / occult / divination
*Maleficent right-wing figures
*Sheep or other ovine animals
*Long shadow of Japanese Imperialism
*Use of random music (jazz, rock, or classical) / cooking as punctation, like listening to music while making spaghetti and then the phone rings... The music is always specifically named.
*Search for lost cat
Of course, this does not make any given novel unoriginal. I'm sure all writers have favorite situations or character types that work well for their particular imagination. It's almost comforting to see a motif you've seen in a few other novels, because the novelist is teaching you how to read him.
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