Impressive writing and scope - but how good a novel is Solo?

Been reading more in Rana Dasgupta's debut novel "Solo" and continue to be impressed by his knowledge, intelligence, and writerly skills. Every passage is beautifully written, sharply detailed, full of striking imagery - reminds me a little of Netherland, at least in style. And the scope and ambition of the book is tremendous: a 100-year-old blind Bulgarian sits in his apartment and remembers his life, which spans the 20th century; he touches (so far in the book) in most of the major upheavals in Europe - the early optimism embodied in his father, a railroad engineer; the devastation of WW1, which ruined his father; his enthusiasm for chemistry and studies in Germany; the ruin of all that through the rise of Fasciscm; political upheaval in Sofia; WW2 and the invasion of the Soviets, first as liberators then as oppressors; political retaliations, executions - all this in 100 pages, plus the protagonist (Ulrich) gets married, fatherhood, wife deserts him and disappears from his life; mother gets arrested - all this, plus a lot of knowledge about chemistry, music (Ulrich's other passion), plus the details of daily life in Bulgaria (of all places) through all these years (the smell of horses early in the century, smell of urine from the alleyways today - a blind man recalling this) - all that said, I wish there were more to this very promising novel than a parade through the events of history, but as it happens, so far, that's all there is: the character does not so much develop as witness and experience; compare with The Tin Drum, which I haven't read in many years, but in that book there were more conflicts and crises for the central character - here is all unfolds like a personal newsreel. We'll see how it develops.