Here’s my first really bad book in quite a long time! This book was recommended online as a funny look at someone who really hates their job. Going on only that brief snippet of information I checked this book out of the library, and unfortunately I was left disappointed.
I’m not sure if I really got the point of this novel. The main character is an over-educated self-centered whiny guy who seems to take no responsibility in his life. He spends more energy avoiding said responsibility and work than he would use by actually working. If this character is meant to symbolize someone or some generation it is beyond my skill to identify it. Other characters get written in a overly simple way and there is nobody likable (to me) in the whole book. I’m not sure if the story is supposed to be funny – there are lots of slapstick moments and timely coincidences but I felt like I was missing the funny parts. Especially I felt that the portions of the book written from ethnic minority points of view were written in a way that was meant to imitate their accents, and this came off as uncomfortable to read.
The writer is undoubtably clever and some of the references were well placed, but the whole effort felt like a poor reimagination of Don Quixote, or maybe a Jerry Lewis skit that goes on too long.
So this was definitely not my cup of tea, moving on! Next is The French Market Cookbook – a book about cooking vegetables which caught my eye.
