How I Became Stupid [Mass Market Paperback]

Martin Page (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 30, 2004

Ignorance is bliss, or so hopes Antoine, the lead character in Martin Page?s stinging satire, How I Became Stupid?a modern day Candide with a Darwin Award?like sensibility. A twenty-five-year-old Aramaic scholar, Antoine has had it with being brilliant and deeply self-aware in today?s culture. So tortured is he by the depth of his perception and understanding of himself and the world around him that he vows to denounce his intelligence by any means necessary?in order to become ?stupid? enough to be a happy, functioning member of society. What follows is a dark and hilarious odyssey as Antoine tries everything from alcoholism to stock-trading in order to lighten the burden of his brain on his soul.

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

Twenty-five-year-old Parisian Antoine is sick. The disease? Intelligence. Desperate to find a cure for his overactive brain, Antoine considers alcoholism, suicide, and lobotomy, but none seems quite right for his special needs. A new job, though, is just the ticket. Accepting a position in his high-school friend's brokerage firm, Antoine finds the burdens of consciousness gradually slipping away. This delightfully over-the-top debut novel was a smash when it was published in France in 2001, but will it play as well stateside? After all, the mediocrity that Antoine deems essential to being happy in today's society features many elements common to mainstream American culture. Still, there is always an audience--if not an enormous one--for novels that skewer thick-headed simplicity, and this absurdist comedy mounts a formidable attack. Only an abrupt and puzzlingly optimistic ending detracts from the note of cheerful pessimism that drives the story. Beth Leistensnider
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Review

A harmonious and surprising mixture of optimism and nihilism. (La Vie Magazine)

A wild yet powerful book. (Elle)

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 18 and up
  
• Mass Market Paperback: 176 pages
• Publisher: Penguin (Non-Classics) (November 30, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0142004952
• ISBN-13: 978-0142004951
• Product Dimensions: 7 x 5.1 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 6.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (37 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #799,439 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

16 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Great ideas poorly executed, April 1, 2005

By 

Laurie Fudd "loribd92" (Loganville, GA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: How I Became Stupid (Mass Market Paperback)

I wanted very much to like this book. I had read reviews of it, and it seemed to mesh very much with how I have been feeling lately. However, when I read it, I was very disappointed. I felt like it was the outline of a better book, and wasn't very well fleshed out. The main character had very little insight into his own behavior, and was somewhat of a hypocrite. For example, there are many descriptions of Antoine stealing from and cheating people, and yet he goes on and on about how few moral people are left in the world. This can work as a literary device, but I got the impression from the way it was written that the author didn't have a lot of insight into Antoine's behavior either.

I mainly thought that the book was very lazily written. There are some potentially interesting supporting characters that are given short shrift. For example, Antoine has a friend named Aas that, due to a childhood trauma, only speaks in verse. Page doesn't ever give us a sample of this verse, only says things like, "In a magnificent sonnet, Aas told Antoine...." I can hear echoes of my old writing teachers: Show me, don't tell me. The book is replete with examples of this.

It was not entirely bad. There are some very interesting ideas in the book, and some phrasings that really caught my attention. The first paragraph is great. However, these shining moments were the exception and not the rule. My overall impression was that this was a book written by a very young author (he was in his mid-twenties when it was published, I believe) who had some great ideas that he was eager to get on paper. He got them on paper as quickly as he could, and couldn't be bothered with the details or internal consistency because they just slowed him down. Unfortunately, no agent or editor along the way asked him to slow down and fill in the blanks. I'd like to see Page, who obviously has unguided talent, rewrite this book when he is ten years older.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars tis a plight for sure..., March 8, 2005

By 

M. Miller (TN) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: How I Became Stupid (Mass Market Paperback)

Antoine, a twenty-five year old Frenchman, wants the finer things in life. He decrees that he shall no longer be burdened by intelligence, critical analysis, or culture. Instead, he wants to be stupid.

Now, this may seem like an idiotic thought, but to Antoine it makes sense because his attempts at becoming an alcoholic failed, after only a half-glass, and his suicide instructor accidentally led him away from the morbid path. Go figure.

Overall, this book is a glimpse, as one reviewer put it, into Antoine's "wonderful existential journey." Not too deep mind you, and that is one of the main faults. This book, sensibly enough, is especially alluring to the reader who finds that he or she relates to Antoine - pre-stupidity attempts. In this sense we feel his pain, and see a tidbit of ourselves. However, as previously mentioned, this book is short and does not offer us the expanded view, into either ourselves or existentialism in general, that we might have wanted.

(Also especially poignant for the Huckabees fan)

9 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Wonderful existential journey, December 15, 2004

By 

paxorbis "paxorbis" (USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: How I Became Stupid (Mass Market Paperback)

"How I became stupid" is a gracefully narrated tale of a man afflicted by his intelligence. As the character tries to escape his curse by becoming stupid he learns of his own limitations, the true value of stupidity and the importance of friendship. This type of book teaches philosophy by showing rather than telling, and it does so in a hugely entertaining and funny fashion. At fewer than 200 pages and written in a very straightforward way, the book is a great, great afternoon read.