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L'incredibile Viaggio Del Fachiro Che Restò Chiuso In Un Armadio Ikea (2013)

by Romain Puértolas(Favorite Author)

3.2 of 5 Votes: 4

ISBN

8806218697 (ISBN13: 9788806218690)

languge

English

genre

Humor

publisher

Einaudi

review 1: What is it about this work which reminds me of an IKEA store? It might have been the fanfare which accompanied its release, a novel written in spare moments by a former cleaner at the Brighton Pier on his mobile phone. Perhaps the very idea of someone trapped inside a wardrobe and then making his way around the world, not that I can see all that much excitement in the concept; it's not as if someone trapped inside a wardrobe gets to see a great deal. Perhaps, and this strikes me as most probable, it was the title which first caught my attention. There seems to be a tendency, amongst some publishers, to go for longer titles, after years of just three words.Whatever it was, I regret it. I have never been a great fan of the guided tour of IKEA to find that one, small kitchen ... moreutensil. The stores strike me as being bland, contrived, lacking in any real humanity. There is not even an attempt to create individuality. With IKEA, you know that what you are buying has been produced in massive quantities and that everyone who shops in IKEA is likely to have one or more item that you also have. There is a certain shallowness about the stores, and that is what I found in this novel too. The wordplay, especially upon various names, was contrived and shallow; despite adequate descriptions, I couldn't get into the characters at all, the seemed to be taken out of an ordinary box and only partially constructed.The storyline could have pulled the whole together but, here too, I found it wanting in description and depth. What could have been a very humorous, touching investigation into the plight of those illegals caught on the border of one country and sent packing off to another they have never visited before, lacked the wit, the charm, the sarcasm needed.
review 2: Ever wondered what it would be like to sleep overnight in IKEA? This novel hilariously explores the adventures of an Indian kafir and his introduction to Paris, England, and Rome after a life of trickery and deception and attempting to sneak a free night in the showroom of the Swedish store before buying the Hertsyorbak model of a bed of nails. Intriguingly, the author plays with the reader by including a story within a story when Ajatashatru writes while inside one of his escape containers. The author also makes fun of himself in the book by writing statements like " in Paris, as we have already said, Marie replaced the receiver, her heart devoured by the flames of a wildfire- a sentence that does not really mean much, but which does possess a certain literary flair". Although he struggles to survive several harrowing escapes, Ajatashatru's story is one of hope, as revealed through his relationship with Parisian Maria: "if Maria had learned one thing, it was that you could fall in love at forty years old with a stranger you met in an IKEA cafeteria. It was perhaps not very sensible, but God, it felt good! It just went to show that nothing was ever lost ". An interesting, harrowing, and intriguing read. less

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