For more than two hours, the characters in the classic movie Citizen Kane try to discover why the rich man’s last spoken word was “Rosebud.” Who or what is Rosebud? In the final seconds of the film, we get an answer of sorts: Rosebud may be everything, or it may be nothing. The Great and Calamitous Tale of Johan Thoms can be seen in a similar light. We meet Thoms in old age. We then flash back to learn all the details of his strange, epic journey from his youth in Bosnia. And, at the end, there is a Rosebud moment.

Thoms is the fictional chauffeur for the Austro-Hungarian Archduke Franz Ferdinand on a fateful day: June 28, 1914. In Sarajevo, the chauffeur takes a wrong turn onto a dead-end street and then can’t put the car into reverse. (The actual chauffeur, Leopold Lojka, had similar problems.) His mistake allows a Serbian nationalist to assassinate the archduke, igniting the First World War. Thoms blames himself for the global conflagration and every other calamitous event that follows.

For the next half-century, Thoms meanders around Europe, too afraid and ashamed to face his family or the great love of his life, Lorelei. Various new friends accompany Thoms on his surreal travels in Portugal, Spain, and England. Celebrities such as Dorothy Parker, Ernest Hemingway, and George Orwell drift in and out of the story. Throughout, we come to ponder the responsibility we must take for the events of the world around us. And, if we feel responsible, what must we do to make amends?

These are huge issues for a debut novelist to tackle. Maybe this book plumbs the great mysteries of human nature. Maybe it explains the 20th century in a way no one has dared before. Or maybe it is just absurdist literature – zany, dark, and ultimately pointless. Regardless, this is a novel best enjoyed by those who relish complex philosophical puzzles.

As a wordsmith, Thornton is a great technician. Almost every sentence is a gem. You will repeatedly laugh aloud. But on a larger scale, the author fails to make us care about Johan Thoms or his bizarre and ultimately tiresome journey toward his own version of a Rosebud moment.