From Seeing a Brilliant Play to Finishing a Disgrace of a Book

Just finished one of the worst books I've ever read titled, 'The Extraordinary Journey of the Fakir Who Got Trapped in an IKEA Wardrobe'.
It's about an Indian con-artist (the fakir in the book's title) who goes to Paris to buy a bed of nails with a counterfeit banknote only to end up being shipped to various countries after getting trapped in an IKEA wardrobe while trying to hide in the store overnight, because he has nowhere to stay.

The funniest part of the whole book is on the back cover ... and I don't mean the price tag ... I'm pointing out the so-called IKEA brand-name for the bed of nails ... Hertsyorbak, get it?

Hurts your back:-P

This book looked promising when I spotted its cover in the Riverbend bookstore in Brisbane, but you know what they say about covers on books.
You would honestly get bigger laughs from reading the names in an IKEA catalogue, or from someone telling you that IKEA was a good place to work for, than from reading this novel.

I found it a bigger pain trying to read to the end of this book than sitting on the above chair.

I couldn't believe all the good reviews this book got at Amazon either.
Did we read the same book here?

I found the stereotyping of different races in this book anything, but funny, especially Gypsies and the Gypsy taxi driver who is hell bent on killing the fakir for ripping him off of a cab fare, after he first tried ripping off the Indian by taking him the long way round to an IKEA store in Paris.
And the author Romain Puertolas tries to get laughs by trying to rhyme the Indian's name with phrases like,"a jar of rat stew" and so forth.
Hilarious. 

A better idea for a story may have been ,
'The Extraordinary Journey of the IKEA Monkey Who Got Trapped in an IKEA Wardrobe'?
Or 'The Silly Monkey Who Got Trapped into Working for IKEA for Peanuts, Before Going Bananas';-)
Shark Week in the Year of the Monkey
Now there is a good idea for a children's book for all of you budding authors out there.

The funny thing is though, the day I finally finished slogging through a disgrace of a novel about stereotypes, I saw a brilliant play examining racial stereotypes in the post 9/11 world, which I wrote about in this post a few days ago -
Dis(grace)d?
And another funny thing was after coming out of the theatre after seeing the play, 'Disgraced', I came across a "fakir" performing a magic trick in an effort to raise some money, as well as himself off the ground.
Stay away from IKEA with your takings, I say Mr Fakir;-)

A "fakir"performing a magic trick in
  Southbank Parklands in Brisbane

Statue I came across in Southbank Parklands
 on my walk after seeing the play

So, if you get the chance to see the play, 'Disgraced', my advice is go and see it, it's a great play.

And if you are looking for a good book to read and come across, 'The Extraordinary Journey of the Fakir Who Got Trapped in an IKEA Wardrobe', in a bookstore, my advice would be to keep looking, because it is as empty of laughs as the no-carb beer I bought at the Playhouse bar is of calories (pictured above). 
Great label on the front, but nothing worth consuming inside.