Monday, May 16, 2016

The Extraordinary Journey of the Fakir...

The Extraordinary Journey of the Fakir Who Got Trapped in an Ikea Wardrobe by Romain Puértolas  301 pp.

The title says it all..., well almost. The Indian Fakir/Con man named Ajatashatru Oghash (pronounced A-jar-of-rat-stew-oh-gosh! or A-cat-in-a-bat-suit or A-jackal-that-ate-you among other versions) travels to France with a single counterfeit 100 note only printed on one side to buy a new bed of nails at IKEA. He hides in the store during the night and slips into a gym locker style wardrobe to hide from workmen who end up loading the wardrobe into a truck for transport to London. When he and some stowaways in the truck get caught by immigration they all are deported to Spain, where the stowaways came from. In the meantime, the cab driver he cheated is after him and sees him in Spain and begins trying to kill him with the assistance of his gypsy relatives all over Europe. From Spain the fakir goes to Italy, this time moving up to a Louis Vuitton trunk as his mode of travel. The mayhem goes on from there including trips to Libya and back to France. Along the way Ajatashatru writes a short story, gets a publisher, and decides to change his con man ways. This is a fun and goofy story and I kept thinking someone should make a movie of it. I discovered that one is being made with Marjane Satrapi, author of Persepolis, directing. 

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