On its surface, this book is the story of a juice factory guard who winds up becoming obsessed with high-end dentistry, and takes up a career in elite auctioneering to finance an ambitious tooth project. Along the way, our hero explains his theory of auctioneering, has a family reunion that goes very poorly, and saves a church.

I appreciate the creativity of the story, and I think the first half or so is quite interesting. I also quite enjoyed, actually, the afterword - the story of this book and the way it came together is quite fascinating.

For all that this book is meant to break out of self-referentialism by placing itself in a very practical setting that is grounded in concrete experience… it still feels a like a sort of navel-gazing work. The fact that the story is as absurd as it is, without really much of a compelling theme to tie it together, makes this self-awareness that much more annoying.

I think this book is a worthwhile experiment, and I think Luiselli should be applauded for reaching out to workers as she did - but I can’t say I enjoyed it all that much.