A Calling for Charlie Barnes by J Ferris Fact or Fiction? That is the Question

Joshua Ferris' novel "A Calling for Charlie Barnes," is an ingenious approach to storytelling.  What is fact and what is faction, that is the question.  Ferris was a finalist for the Nat'l Book Award,2007.  NPR named "A Calling for Charlies Barnes," one of the best novels of 2021.  Charlie Barnes is the beloved hero, or so we are led to believe, until we're led to believe otherwise.  Therein lies an enigma baffling to the readers in this beguiling, irksome and riveting novel.  Whose story telling is telling the truth?  Who can handle the truth?  Most importantly, whose in control of the truth?  Charlie's life is first told by an unnamed narrator, later revealed as his son Jake.  Actually, his foster son.  Jake is a successful novelist which does little to ingratiate himself with the family he claims.  He's devoted to Charlie.  Bereft when he learns from Charlie he's been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer; or perhaps self-diagnosed with pancreatic cancer, Jake wants to rally his loving siblings, or civil "step-siblings" round their dad.  Only dad is not revered by his siblings.   In fact, Jerry told dad he was working abroad which is a fraud.  His sis in TX stopped buying their dad's attention getting fabrications long ago.  True, Charlie is a pathological liar and narcissist.  Sis has her dad pegged.  Jake admits his stepdad is something of a joke but also a fucking colossus. "There was no bringing him down, no killing him off."  Charlie has been married twice before his current wife, Barbara.   Not counting his 2nd wife Barbara and a father of three, not counting his 2nd daughter whom Jake feels is a major mistake to include.  Charlie is possessed of a fantastical mind-set owing to the fictional selves and careers he intended to make happen.  Without his many plans and failings, his banal existence wouldn't be worth living. A charmer of women, spinner of tales, he's his own worst enemy due to his stupid pride.  He's a pathetic loser who still manages to win admiration of friends and women and commands the attention of complete strangers he engages in lengthy conversation.  You can't dismiss this colorful chap who dons a rakish hat. The author's extremely clever style and observations are not to be overlooked.  "When we consider the necessarily curated nature of any narrated life, its omissions as well as its trending hostages, if you will, we are forced to conclude that every history, including our own first-person accounts, is a fiction of sort."  How many of us are laden with self-deceptions before getting out of bed in the mornings?  This novel reckons with the assumption there's an essential opposition between truth and fiction.   Truthfully,  I highly recommend this entertaining and deceptively enlightening depiction of fact versus fiction.