Synopses & Reviews
A pop-culture farce from one of France's hottest new voices.
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.
Review
"[D]elightfully over-the-top....[T]here is always an audience if not an enormous one for novels that skewer thick-headed simplicity, and this absurdist comedy mounts a formidable attack." Booklist
Review
"A wild yet powerful book." Elle
Review
"Page's first novel deftly combines biting satire and hilarious slapstick. His characters are highly introspective misfits, and the story makes for insightful commentary on life in the 'developed' world. Recommended." Library Journal
Review
"A harmonious and surprising mixture of optimism and nihilism." La Vie Magazine
Synopsis
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.
About the Author
Martin Page was born in 1975. He is a student of anthropology. This is his first novel.
Adriana Hunter is the English translator of eighteen books. She has been short-listed for the Independent Foreign Fiction Prize for the last three years.