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I can sometimes appreciate a distance from the topic. It can make the impact more profound.
I remember when reading Slaugherhouse Five, I thought it was quite effective that he almost trivialised events, it gave them more power in a way. But in the case of Fugitive Pieces, it seemed to be Ben's paraphrasing of Jacob's notes of a childhood he had actively tried to bury - the most traumatic of these occurring when he was quite young. It doesn't surprise me that it lacked a certain "personality".
Of course, Michaels chose the setting, the characters. Although the construction allows for the distance, you can still criticise the choice of building materials.
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