Both funny and disturbing, Ilan Duran Cohen’s new novel is a tenderhearted farce with some very tough side effects.

Just when everything seems to be going rather well for Alain Conlang, mild-mannered TV polemicist who is not only State-endorsed but also adored by the country's youth, he lets go with a silly and gratuitous sexist remark during a casual dinner party. Was he bored? Was it the alcohol? Bad taste? No excuse can justify it. In a world that has been ideologically bleached, this slip of the tongue is likely to precipitate our 21st century Bartleby headlong into a decidedly inflexible Kafkaesque downward spiral.