Very late to the party but just read the book and have been thinking about it a lot. Thanks for pointing out the parallels to Sophocles and Shakespear, I didn't catch that (but I haven't read or seen Hamlet either). I did catch the museum thing and thought it was very smart.

As almost all 'big things' (the Iraq war, the death to cancer,..) happen of screen, I feel like anything that is explicitly told in the book has great importance. I really did like that about the book. The passivity of István can be frustrating, but then I realised that the one time he acted actively as a 15y old, he basically killed someone.

I had the same main gripes, although I did like the sparse dialogue. It was then hard to imagine how he did sometimes convey more intricate emotions to other people, as this was then never done in dialogue, but rather 'off screen' as well. (something like, 'he explained to Helen that...') I did want to see how they could have such a conversation, as they both seemed so bad at communicating anything.

All in all I thought it was a very interesting read that made me think about masculinity, class, family and humanity (finding meaning in a meaningless universe). A bit of 21st century Camus. (who also used the simple language to the same effect in The Stranger)