a beginning and an attractive final with a big hollow in the middle

This novel Malzieu left me a strange feeling. I loved the beginning who presents Tom, an offbeat, wacky, original character, which starts across the country to make representations of failed waterfalls, while strolling through a foot coffin ... In short, I found flambloyant the delusions Malzieu in line with the core mechanics that I had loved .... I joined to the meeting with the bird-woman ... Then, I found it bland, Relief .... sometimes boring and in any case never poetic .... until 30 last pages (the event impossible to say without saying too much), where there I found the author who knows me to travel in a final, for once full of poetry ....
In short, between a beginning and an attractive final, a large vacuum rather hollow corresponding to any transformation of Tom ....
I hesitated between 2 and 3 stars in the end ...