From the cover:
Tortured by the depth of his own intellect, plagued by his overwhelming sense of self-awareness and the moral implications of every action he makes, Antoine, a 25-year-old Aramaic scholar, is at the end of his rope, with only one viable solution in sight: he must denounce his intelligence, by any means necessary. What follows in Martin Page's wickedly funny satire is an odyssey unlike any other as Antoine walks the streets of Paris trying everything from alcoholism to stock-trading to the prescription drug Happyzac in order to lighten the burden of his mind on his soul and to fulfill his dream of becoming stupid enough to be a happily functioning member of society."

My take:
The beginning is really funny - the attempt at alcoholism is particularly great - but at some point, it falls flat with the humor and completely predictable with the satire. Really - it's so easy to look down one's nose at stock brokers, why bother? But Antoine does.

I would've liked it much more in college, before I figured out there's a whole gray world of people just trying to live and get along out there.

Now a bookray! PM to join.

The rules:
1. When you receive book, journal.
2. Then, PM the next person on the list for their address. Let me know if the person doesn't respond within a week or if the person can't take the book.
3. Keep the book for only one month. If this is a problem, let me know.
4. Journal your thoughts after you read the book. I hate it when people don't tell me what they thought of the book- takes all the fun out of the ring/ray for me!
5. Journal after you mail the book so everyone can see when it went out. This helps clue everyone in if it's lost in the mail, too.

Bookray Members (Order may change):
Llednyl, shipping pref. US or Canada
red-dianthus, Canada or US
NMReader US Only
Back to me?
LeishaCamdenWingsNorway, will ship anywhere
scrutiny Hong Kong, ship anywhere, new member!

BOOKRING COMPLETE! Thank you to everyone for passing it on.

Was waiting for me when I came home from work! I'm very excited to read this. I have a couple rings ahead of it to finish but I'll try to get started ASAP.

I agree that it was funnier in the beginning and somewhere in the middle kind of fizzled out. On the whole I really enjoyed it though, found it very funny and thought-provoking. I liked the fairy-tale quality Page's storytelling had. I wish the book was longer, and that there had been more time spent on character development. I feel like the story had a lot of room to expand. Thanks very much for sharing!

I'll send this to the next reader as soon as I receive an address.

This arrived just today. i started reading it tonight at work and will post again once I finish it.

This book just felt like it was trying way too hard and ended up trapped under the weight of it's own pretentiousness. Of course the fact I am grumpy because I have lost my voice and am sick during the one week I have off of work could make me a little more harsh in my opinions then usual.

I have mailed the book on to the next person.

found in my mailbox - looking forward to reading

Fabulous beginning but the middle and end were not as good.

I actually had to laugh at one of the lines in the book. I have unfortunately sealed the envelope but it is underlined and it was something about trying too hard to understand. I have some friend who tell me I think too much - I actually try to understand too much.

RELEASE NOTES:

Ready to be mailed at lunch time

Came back so I can send it overseas.

This was in my mailbox when I got home from work this afternoon. :-) Thanks for sharing, EvaLowrain! I'm looking forward to reading this; I do have some rings & rays in the house already (they travel in packs!!) but I will read this as soon as I can. I'll journal again when I've read the book.

I've read this book now. August 31st through September 3rd. I'm sorry for taking so long, I've been totally backed up with rings & rays. Better late than never I hope. :-)

This was a strange book. :-) In a way it's a rather ... 'figurative' story. Ie, it doesn't really depict reality. It's almost kind of like a fable in a way. The style is quite naïvistic and the main character's rather childlike. So in some ways it doesn't touch our reality. But at the same time I think it has important things to say about the world and about the way we live now. Sometimes it can be hard to find meaning in everyday life ... and sometimes I totally understand how Antoine feels, about his intelligence being a handicap. I'm one of those people who 'think too much' and am sometimes told that I need to stop doing that. Ie, just roll with it. The world is what it is, etc. I'm sure that if I were to take this advice, things would be easier ... but how? I'm not sure I can stop, I think my brain just ticks along regardless of my will. And would I even want to stop, really? I'm not at all sure that simpler is always better.

Overall I quite liked this book, and it made me think some valuable thoughts, but it was uneven. The ending I thought needed much more work. It seemed out of tune with the rest of the book, and basically too much like an 'easy out' for the author. The story went off on a tangent in the last couple of chapters.

There was also a glaring mistake in the book which made me lower my estimation a bit ... the author has slipped up, and the editor and proofreader has too. On page 93, Antoine is packing up all his stuff preparatory to dumbing down his lifestyle. He packs his record player, and it say, He had, therefore, rejected CDs. No, he hadn't!! On page 85, we heard about how he packed up all his 'input' that was feeding his brain - books, magazines, etc - and among these things, his CDs. Obvious glaring mistake. IMO this is patronising towards the reader. If the author can't be bothered to pay proper attention to his own work, why should we?

But I'm happy to have read the book, it was definitely worth reading, even though it wasn't perfect. :-) Thanks for sharing, Eva!!

I already have scrutiny's address, so I will have the book in the mail to Hong Kong sometime this coming week.

CONTROLLED RELEASE NOTES:

I sent this book off in the mail to Hong Kong this afternoon. I wish I was going with it ... !! :-)

Happy reading, scrutiny!!

Hello, the book is here with me now. Thanks!

I was really not impressed with this book at all. It started off promising, and then it descended into the realms of the surreal and then into total nonsense. It had humour potential but untimately failed to live up to it. The ending was completely kooky and didn't make any sense at all, nor did it conclude the book in any satisfying way. It was just completely... well, stupid. I feel like I've lost brain cells reading this! What a waste of time.

I'm ready to send it on, or home.

Going to a fellow bookcrosser in the US as a RABCK. Enjoy!