What do lowlifes do? They "infest." Firmin, the rat-protagonist, says that "infested" is an interesting word. He writes, "Regular people don't infest, couldn't infest if they tried. Nobody infests except fleas, rats... When you infest, you are just asking for it. One day I was talking to a man in a bar, when he asked me what I did for a living. I answered, 'I infest.' I thought that was a pretty ironic thing to say, but the man didn't get it. He thought I had said 'I invest' and started asking me for tips on where he should put his money. So I suggested he invest in construction. The shithead."
You have probably realized that we aren't talking about a Ratatoille-like character (I haven't seen the cartoon, but everyone I talk to about the book makes that instant association) We are talking about a rat who reads literature; loves jazz and plays the piano; enjoys watching beautiful women, whom he calls "the lovelies," dance (yes we are talking about strippers); and is a connoisseur of blue movies in a rundown theater. If this was a description of a single man well into his 40s, we wouldn't bat an eyelid, would we?
He's had two serious relationships (no, not of the sexual nature, but friendships) in his short life. One with a bald bookshop owner, which is sadly imaginary, and another with a washed-out science-fiction writer. What begins as a light, funny novel, ends in, what on a rat-scale could be termed, an apocalypse. The neighborhood in which he lives is leveled to the ground by the city authorities. This includes the second-hand bookshop in which he grew up.
The author has the most fun in the book as he plays with and teases the reader. I only wish he ended the book as well as he had started it.
The black-and-white illustrations in the book bring Firmin into our world. I especially like the one in which he plays his tiny piano painted over with little flowers. The old book covers or title pages of early editions of books such as The Grapes of Wrath, Moby Dick, and Middlemarch dot the book irregularly, and remind the reader that this book is really about the love of books and reading. I think that this book is also about the death of the book and reading, at least in the Western world.
