I loved most of the book, until I got to chapters where the dog's appear to have written their opinions about what was going on. Too fanciful for my taste.
Also, there was never a clear reason why Uncle Claude carried out his mission, which I won't reveal.
What could have been, and mostly was, a fantastically written novel became less so in my mind when the novel took on surreal circumstances.
The family relationship in the first half of the book was dear, the second half, not so much. Too hard to swallow.