Ignorance is bliss, or so hopes Antoine, the lead character in Martin Page's stinging satire, How I Became Stupid-a modern day Candideread full description
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Jan 25, 2009
David
rated it: 
EN
although based on an interesting idea and quite well reasoned, the book seems overrated; except for antoine all the other characters lack personality. the last chapter is almost annoying, due to the artificial feeling and the beginning of the love story. the naivety and the simplicity of the 2 characters is so exaggerated so that everything becomes unnatural.
RO
desi bazata pe o idee interesanta si argumentata destul de bine, cartulia mi se pare cam overrated; cu excepti More...
although based on an interesting idea and quite well reasoned, the book seems overrated; except for antoine all the other characters lack personality. the last chapter is almost annoying, due to the artificial feeling and the beginning of the love story. the naivety and the simplicity of the 2 characters is so exaggerated so that everything becomes unnatural.
RO
desi bazata pe o idee interesanta si argumentata destul de bine, cartulia mi se pare cam overrated; cu excepti More...
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Jan 02, 2008
Kurt
rated it:
Are you morose? Does your intelligence get in the way of your happiness? Then move along, this book is not for you.
Draw an equilateral triangle. Label each vertex: "Candide", by Voltaire; "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy", by Douglas Adams; "Venus on the Half-Shell", by Kilgore Trout.
Now plot a point in the middle of the triangle, but a little off-center, somewhere between Hitchhiker's Guide and Half-Shell. That is where this novel More...
Draw an equilateral triangle. Label each vertex: "Candide", by Voltaire; "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy", by Douglas Adams; "Venus on the Half-Shell", by Kilgore Trout.
Now plot a point in the middle of the triangle, but a little off-center, somewhere between Hitchhiker's Guide and Half-Shell. That is where this novel More...
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Dec 17, 2009
Kir
rated it: 
a pseudo-intellectual is tormented by his intelligence and goes on a mission to "become stupid" by doing "normal" things like being a "millionaire stockbroker". written at the fifth grade level, it reads like something i would write when i'm drunk, and in the end of the book, the guy falls in love. t'duh.
at least i've read something that wasn't a blog. maybe now that i've warmed up my page-turning hands, i'll try and finish infinite jest for the final
at least i've read something that wasn't a blog. maybe now that i've warmed up my page-turning hands, i'll try and finish infinite jest for the final
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Oct 27, 2007
Eric
rated it:
The book was strictly ok, nowhere near as silly as the end of Werber's Fourmis series. I dunno, there's a sort of cliché snobbery in this book (well, what else do you expect from such a title) that got on my nerves. Oooh, so the protagonist decides he wants to be stupid and so he goes to eat at McDonalds... puh-leeze... I mean I'm down with intellectual snobbery and all that, but that's just pandering.
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Dec 16, 2009
Jared
rated it:
one of the best concepts ever... intelligent guy decides the reason he's miserable is because he's TOO intelligent, so decides to become stupid. HOWEVER, much like the shitty films of M. Night Shyamalan, it fails to live up to the brilliance of its premise. I wish I could tell you specific reasons why I ended up flinging it at the wall, but I've shut it out to make way for more useful things in my brain.
Dec 12, 2007
rachel
rated it:
abandoned on account of it's annoying to read.
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Nov 08, 2011
Patrick
rated it:
I'm thinking about instituting a new book-reading rule next year: stop reading books as soon as they uninterest me. Were that it was that new year, because this piece of shit would have been a good book to start stopping with.
In actuality, I've been quitting books for years: I just don't write reviews for them because I usually stop reading them by the first or second page, and who am I to judge if a book might not get better as it goes on? But this book, this "book" I knew More...
In actuality, I've been quitting books for years: I just don't write reviews for them because I usually stop reading them by the first or second page, and who am I to judge if a book might not get better as it goes on? But this book, this "book" I knew More...
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Mar 11, 2010
Elizabeth
rated it: 
How I Became Stupid by Martin Page (pp. 160)
A satirical look at one man’s quest to be normal. Translated from the original French, this novella feels like the opposite of Paulo Coelho’s The Alchemist. Antoine is an uber-intellectual who hypothesis that becoming dumb is the answer to all his problems. He’s over-schooled, over-philosophized and lacks a high functioning personality for traditional social norms. He starts his plan by taking on alcoholism. He’s a super smart, hy More...
A satirical look at one man’s quest to be normal. Translated from the original French, this novella feels like the opposite of Paulo Coelho’s The Alchemist. Antoine is an uber-intellectual who hypothesis that becoming dumb is the answer to all his problems. He’s over-schooled, over-philosophized and lacks a high functioning personality for traditional social norms. He starts his plan by taking on alcoholism. He’s a super smart, hy More...
Nov 29, 2010
Matt
rated it:
The theme, thesis and title are all in place for this to be a fantanstic piece of contemporary literature, but what happens instead is that something either gets lost in the French/English translation or the book just doesn't deliver on its intent. I'm going to go with the latter just because I love to argue.
The most glaring fault in the book (from the first pages) is its intensely used $10 vocabularly; it slows the pace of the book and actually makes the narrators telling of Antoine More...
The most glaring fault in the book (from the first pages) is its intensely used $10 vocabularly; it slows the pace of the book and actually makes the narrators telling of Antoine More...
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Jan 18, 2010
daniel
rated it:
Nada é mais francês do que a obra “Como me tornei um estúpido”, de Martin Page. O livro, que se tornou um cult dos anos 2000, narra a história de Antoine, um jovem cuja inteligência excessiva o faz sofrer demais com o mundo. Assim, após tentar, em vão, o alcoolismo e o suicídio, Antoine resolve se tornar estúpido.
O mote parece sedutor, mas é um truque: Antoine não se insurge contra sua hipersensibilidade intelectual diante das injustiças do mundo. Se insurge contra o fato de suas habilidad More...
O mote parece sedutor, mas é um truque: Antoine não se insurge contra sua hipersensibilidade intelectual diante das injustiças do mundo. Se insurge contra o fato de suas habilidad More...
Feb 18, 2008
How I Became Stupid...I read this book. Not a good book. Maybe I should've drank wine while it read or worn a beret. I am afraid to post this because what if the fact that I didn't understand it reflects on my infinte depths of my stupidity as an undereducated American, unable to contemplate any thing that is not tangible or realated to beer commercials or sports metaphors. Naaahh!
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Jul 26, 2011
ઈheghi
rated it:
"... I wasn't invited to parties. They were scared because I said what I thought, and I thought some pretty bad things about my classmates. I hated nearly everybody. It was great. But now, now that they've realized how incredible we are, they want to ask us to their grown-up parties and pretend nothing happened, like everything had been forgotten. But no, we won't go. Or if we did, it would only be to steal a few of hors d'oeuvres and some bottles of Orangina. And to hit them all over the
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Mar 03, 2011
John
rated it:
Parisian self-styled intellectual Antoine realizes his lifestyle is making him miserable, and decides to try anything that will make him better able to endure the tedium that is life. Abandoning his assortment of chicly weird friends, he tries alcoholism (a half-litre of beer lands him in ER), a career as a bonds-trader (he's a wild success), etc. Eventually, natch, he realizes his happiest state is when he allows himself just to be himself. I chuckled a lot in the first 30 pages or so, les More...
Jul 09, 2009
Wightknyte11
rated it: 
Page is particularly skillful at fleshing out his absurd characters in the relatively short amount of space the novel occupies. I loved the way Antoine goes about trying to be stupid, in a way that is of course opposite to being stupid. The novel did lean a little clumsily on Antoine's diatribes, but on the whole is well crafted. At some point, however, Page seems to drop the main thread of his novel entirely. It seems like he got to a certain point and couldn't figure out what else to have
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Aug 28, 2008
Ben
rated it:
This book made me dislike the French. It was just terrible. And unpleasant to read. Though, the character Aas was so cool, he should have his book with actual dialogue from him instead of saying something like, "Aas told me I was a jerk in a haiku." I want the haiku instead.
Jul 06, 2009
Caris
rated it:
As pompous and elitist as it seems to me upon reflection, identifying with Antoine was very easy. It seems that the world is made up of people who really don't consider their lives or the world at large. I have never gotten to the point Antoine did, however. I've never considered intelligence to be a curse. Granted, I'm not nearly as enlightened, but, all the same, I cringe at the thought of leaving unnecessary lights on. I hate the fact that I drive everywhere I go. I agonize over the products
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Oct 02, 2011
Holly
rated it:
Well....the premise was promising. An intelligent guy decides the reason he's miserable is because he's too intelligent, so he decides to become stupid. Spoiler alert: He tries alcholism, suicide and happyzac pills. He becomes a millionaire stockbroker by spilling coffee on his computer while trading stocks. His psudo intellectual friends kidnap him and perform a vodoo ritual on him to return him back to "normal". A girl sees him in the park and they fall in love and pretend they are
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Jul 15, 2010
I have been reading reviews recently, it was quite silly to see the amount of negative feedback this book was getting, and it was usually attributed to hurried writing, and flimsy writing and other forms of writing that can be frowned upon. I suppose I was reading reviews beyond the population because of its high selling rates, I feel as a consumer I'd never waste a penny on it but as a read, perfectly fulfilling... The idea of morality being associated with intellectualism (how inane?!), maybe
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Sep 28, 2011
Becca
rated it:
still not sure how i feel about this book. it wasn't bad or anything it just wasn't as good as i thought it'd be. it's been translated into 24 languages from french and is an "international cult favorite." that's a big recommendation from the world. it's usually a safe bet when a book is loved by so many people. the story has an awesome premise, a great title, and since i've been known to pick books by their covers i have to say i liked this cover a lot. now on to antoine who bec
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Oct 05, 2008
Michel
rated it:
A thoughtful, sarcastic, sad, hilarious, disturbing, lovely little book.
Antoine decides to stop thinking and heed Flaubert's injunction: To be stupid, selfish and healthy are the three requirements to be happy, though if stupidity is lacking, all is lost.
To be happy, he will strip himself of his social conscience, his thoughtful sensitivity, his few friends, even "his precious and individual limited editions", books painfully reconstituted, page by page.
Further to buc More...
Antoine decides to stop thinking and heed Flaubert's injunction: To be stupid, selfish and healthy are the three requirements to be happy, though if stupidity is lacking, all is lost.
To be happy, he will strip himself of his social conscience, his thoughtful sensitivity, his few friends, even "his precious and individual limited editions", books painfully reconstituted, page by page.
Further to buc More...
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Sep 15, 2008
Kat
rated it:
Chris recommended this "goofball novel" to me because it deals with the inevitability of depression for those who are intelligent and carefully consider the world around them. This is true, but I don't think it treats the subject in any meaningful way. The author seems to have the trappings of intellectual culture confused with the mental processes that define people as intellectual. I need to be told more than "this guy knows Aramaic" to understand that he's smart, and mo
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Jan 20, 2008
Shimelle
rated it:
Is it the European factor that makes me like this considerably more than so many others have posted below? Perhaps, for I found the translation to be a strength, for it's not easy to mix a book that is light in tone yet (somewhat) deep in idea, snappy to read yet tightly laced in vocabulary.
That said, don't believe the jacket reviews that call this nihilistic. If you have the awareness to spot the dozens of literary and cultural references that the book relies on to prove the aca More...
That said, don't believe the jacket reviews that call this nihilistic. If you have the awareness to spot the dozens of literary and cultural references that the book relies on to prove the aca More...
Oct 31, 2007
Scott
rated it:
This sentence spoke to me like no other:
"Rodolphe was a pure product of the education system and could expect to be appointed as an assistant professor within the next two years, to be promoted to university professor in about seven years, and to die in perfect obscurity some sixty years later, leaving a body of work that would influence generations of termites."
This book follows Antoine, an intellectual, on his journey to find happiness. He decides that the on More...
"Rodolphe was a pure product of the education system and could expect to be appointed as an assistant professor within the next two years, to be promoted to university professor in about seven years, and to die in perfect obscurity some sixty years later, leaving a body of work that would influence generations of termites."
This book follows Antoine, an intellectual, on his journey to find happiness. He decides that the on More...
Nov 06, 2011
Katie
rated it:
Sometimes I think back to years ago when I read this book and it's funny to me because this book was way too smart for my silly high school self. I am a casual reader not a know it all and this book is very pretentious one could say so it's not something I'd ever choose to read on my own. Normally. But for some reason I did and I always think "I'm glad I read that book" but I never know if it's because I really enjoyed it or because it was something I'd never normally make it all the w
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Mar 13, 2011
Jessa
rated it:
I certainly didn't hate the book, but I also didn't love it. I felt as though the story had a lot of potential that wasn't really realized. Plot events were over too quickly (for example, the 'being an alcoholic' endeavor was over before it even started). Overall, though, the perspective that being smart = bad was a new idea for me, and I enjoyed Page's unique interpretation of the consequences of intelligence today.
Some of the problems I noticed may be due to the translation.
Some of the problems I noticed may be due to the translation.
Apr 01, 2010
A very nice short read. I finished it in about 2 days of casual reading.
The books centers around the premise of a young man named Anton who is so intelligent (which is why I relate to it so much, ha!) that it obstructs his ability to leave peacefully. Always mindful of everything around him, It's difficult for Anton simply exist.
There are a few "laugh out loud" moments, and it's great for someone looking to just pick something up and go.
Especially if you'
The books centers around the premise of a young man named Anton who is so intelligent (which is why I relate to it so much, ha!) that it obstructs his ability to leave peacefully. Always mindful of everything around him, It's difficult for Anton simply exist.
There are a few "laugh out loud" moments, and it's great for someone looking to just pick something up and go.
Especially if you'
Jun 22, 2010
Eric
rated it:
this book is horrendous. the main character is pathetic and i want to slap him. the whole thing is some back handed attempt by the author to show off how smart he thinks he is by over analyzing all kinds of mundane crap that doesn't matter and using as many big words as he can find to try to impress the reader. and i'm sure it works on fools of equal self-importance. although i am the greater fool for trying to actually finish this worthless drool but i cant help but hope there is some punch
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Dec 20, 2009
Linda
rated it:
When I read that this book was an international cult phenomenon I thought it might be worth a few hours of my time. Admittingly, I am/was (I've moved on now) a bit dissapointed. Yes, the story is witty and humorous. Yes, the story tries to make a point about intelligent, unique indivduals living in a society that values luck and mediocrity. And yes, the story has interesting characters and is fairly quick-paced. But, the whole time I felt like the book was moving toward this epic conclusion and
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Aug 10, 2011
In typical French style, Page found an interesting hook and stretched it out over 120 pages without really telling an actual story or cast of characters. Decent idea, poor execution. It is well-written, but seems only to have been put together in order to copyright the basic plot, in hopes of the thing being turned into a movie. And hey, with the state of French cinema these days, it is entirely possible that exactly that happens...
