The classic underachiever, Pablo Jose lives off a stipend from his ridiculously wealthy family. He spends his time sleeping, soliciting prostitutes, smoking hash, drinking heavily and maintaining electronic correspondence with members of an online metaphysical philosophy group all while slumming in an apartment owned by his father.
The back cover compared Tusset’s first novel to John Kennedy Toole’s CONFEDERACY OF DUNCES. I couldn’t finish Toole’s novel because I hated his character so much that it made my teeth hurt. Tusset’s character, although he shares some traits (and even compares himself to Ignatius), is immensely more likable. He is at times funny, intelligent, clever and oddly endearing.

The plot was a makeshift mystery, Pablo’s older brother, head of the family company, goes missing and he is put on the trail by his sister in law. The plot was forced, a means to an end that I think the author found endlessly clever. I, however, was not amused. I hated the ending. HATED it.

The entire novel, I was enthralled. I really liked Pablo Jose and the motley assortment of secondary characters. I was completely won over. And then the point of the novel was revealed, and I loathed it. I hated that I ever liked it. Completely dissatisfying.

There was potential for something great, I was expecting something great. But ended up let down.