Missing Person

Missing Person by Patrick Modiano tells the story of a private investigator's investigation into his own past after partial loss of memory in the background of Germany's occupation of France during II World war. He has lost memory of everything including his own name. Though the subject harks back to existentialist writings of Camus, Kafka, Sartre.. the style is totally different without any philosophizing- 'deceptively simple', direct, matter of fact. He picks up bits and pieces from characters who shared the same experiences as well as links to other characters and thus the story moves on. Unlike traditional investigative stories, the novel doesn't lead to a satisfactory conclusion with all the questions answered but is left open ended with a hopeless resignation. A unique reading experience, indeed!