Any Empire by Powell: Quick Thought

Here’s the thing about “Any Empire”: I had no idea what was going on. I read the first third of the book; set it down; picked it up three days later; and I still had no idea what was going on. It was intriguing enough that I restarted it, trying to pick up the thread. There was some coherence, but I sat it down at the end without any great sense of loss from being pulled out of the character’s world.  The story is basically about a young boy growing up.  His best friend is some sort of bullying sociopath.  They live in the south.  A girl comes into play, as does the later life of the children.  There’s not much dialogue, instead the pictures exist to pull the story along (the art is great).  I just wasn’t into it, and I will assume that here it is my fault.