Gosh! I can't believe I actually went to a bookstore and purchased this book. I've recently become a member of an online reading club and I blame them for getting me to blow a few hundreds on this miserable piece of writing.
Usually I hate to put down books - though I have started to do that more often recently. In this case I started with a determination to read through to the end - I SIMPLY could NOT manage this.
The German translation is pathetic - the translator seems to have put words in an online German-English dictionary and blindly used them in places. The grammar is poor, there are hundreds of typos - something very unusual for a Western publication. But more importantly - there is NO STORY. I'll tell you what this is - a so called philosophical-cum-trying to be modernist-cum-melodramatic-cum-loserly tale of a professor who has lived a certain routine most of his life, and almost borders on being a psycho. He then sees a Portuguese book, gets intrigued by the author and sets out to trace this author's apparently contrasting life. Every few lines you are reminded of how totally surprised he is by the sudden turn of intentions in his head. Enter some more weird, totally impratical characters, painfully long descriptions that leave you no more enlightened, tears, fears, in short... verbal diarrheoa - Ugghh!
I used this book for several days as an antidote to my insomnia - 3 pages at a stretch and I would dose off into peaceful slumber, relieved that my world is what it is and stands where it is!
As for the good reviews of this book - I have one thing to say. You don't have to like all 'philosophy' - it's not like the Emperor's new clothes - you can turn down some of it without the risk of being labeled a pseudo-intellectual!
Mr. Pascal Mercier, I feel like sueing you for causing readers such acute mental trauma and then get away with it and into the bestseller's list!
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