I understimated Mann here. I was quite alienated the first time i saw this, it never translated as more than a blueprint for what he would conceive afterwords. In retrospect, such a foolish mindset!
To me, it's so easy to be absorbed by its construction.
From the first time Neil arrives at the train station, Mann conceives its protagonist through his workplace, his wardrove, the delicacy in which he moves through these places, its biggest frustrations coming not only in…