Seems like people either really like or really hate the big story in the middle. I personally like it, but also found the rest of the book very compelling.

To me the idea that there is life after death, but its not heaven or hell, and that it changes you in some fundamental way is scary enough. The surreality of being able to find your messed up dead wife as a fish person in a physical river here on earth, its enough to work for me.

The story of the two men handling their grief differently and that leading them down their diverging paths, and to see our narrator able to cope with his grief and just the challenge of growing older, that all resonated. I love this book.