I think most people would read this and think it is a pretty ridiculous book, but anyone who has read Proust, who went on and on about many of his childhood memories and the Madeleine, will "get" this and find the book hilariously funny! I did.
I am a bit younger than the author, but I liked him going on and on about the transition from glass delivery milk to the grocery store milk carton. I remember the waning days of delivery, even though I think my family was an early adopter of the milk carton. In my world, the people who still had milk delivery were the "rich" people.
His footnotes got a bit laborious to read, but they really need to be read in order to fully appreciate the book.
Here is the reason why James Mustich says you need to read this before you die:
The plot of Nicholson Baker’s debut novel is simple: A man, returning to his office building from a lunch hour that included milk, a cookie, a small errand, and a stroll, goes up an escalator. That’s it. Only 135 pages long, and graced with numerous lengthy and absorbingly digressive footnotes, this is a wise, patient exploration of that unseen mental space in which we pass our time—and it’s very funny to boot.
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