Without a doubt, the most painful leisure reading I have ever forced myself to endure. I underestimated the "long paragraphs" mentioned in the translator's foreword. Some chapters consisted of one single paragraph. The book is dry, dull, drab, and any other adjectives that could be counted as synonyms of those words. Fine, call it a classic, but nothing about the book is memorable. Not a single sentence is quotable, either.

An excerpt from a review printed on the back of the cover lists that this translation "reveals levels of comedy, energy, and visual power previously unknown to English-language readers". If this is so, I cannot imagine what torture it must have been for readers to have made it through previous translations. In fact, I commend them.

Our time on Earth is limited. You don't have to spend it reading overrated books hoping that you'll glean some level of sophistication.