The Extraordinary Journey of the Fakir Who Got Trapped in an IKEA Wardrobe - Romain Puērtolas

Published by Vintage Books: London, 2014.
First published, in French, 2013. Translated by Sam Taylor, 2014.

One of those 'it is what it says on the tin' books, The Extraordinary Journey of the Fakir Who Got Trapped in an IKEA Wardrobe also comes under the 'how much can we pack into a title' category, along with The 100 Year Old Man Who Climbed Out of the Window and Disappeared - a book (also translated from another language) that I previously read, but long enough ago that I haven't yet reviewed it.

Extraordinary Journey actually has quite a bit in common with 100 Year Old Man - both take their heroes on wide-ranging journeys, encouraging allies and enemies, going from place to place via unexpected and often humorous detours, and both have a romantic subplot gradually emerging. 

The titular Fakir is Ajatashatru (the pronunciation of his name is one of the recurring jokes of the book) whom we meet as he arrives in France, hoping to buy a bed of nails from IKEA. Ajatashatru is a con-man, and even his reason for wanting the bed of nails turns out to be in order to scam his local village even more. However, as he continues his journey he scams two significant individuals: firstly, his taxi driver, Gustave, who soon learns of the scam and vows revenge; secondly, a Frenchwoman, Marie, who begins falling for this suave and mysterious Indian. 

The storyline is all over the place, partially by design, as Ajatashatru travels from place to place, pursued by Gustave and his associates, but this is also a first novel, and at times it shows. At one point we pause the proceedings for Ajatashatru to write a novel while trapped in the cargo hold of a plane (we get the entire novel written out for us). The ending also arrives quite abruptly - as if the author may have run out of steam. 

An interesting concept, that has also apparently been made into a movie(!), I enjoyed The Extraordinary Journey as a one-off, but probably won't be revisiting it any time soon. Another similarity to The 100 Year Old Man. 

Completed 30 March 2024.

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