The hype is far greater than the book

Many, many people have recommended this book to me as "life changing" etc and there certainly is a big enough Following to the book to hype it.
There are some good ideas in this book: the ideas on quality versus quantity, some dialectic stuff, etc. HOWEVER, all the ideas are kind of like ornaments on a Christmas tree. They're decorative and sparkle, but the tree they 're hung on is drab and uninteresting. The novel never does much with thesis ideas other than toss them out at you like confetti.
As a piece of fiction, there's not much of a story and I really did not care much about the "philosopher" at the center of the book. He comes across like a windbag - repeating the same ideas at the drop of a hat.
I suspect, indeed anyone who comes to this book full of new-age angst will bring with them all the post-modern spirituality epiphanies They need and attribute them to reading this book. For the rest of us though, it would be better to read a good fiction novel Either purchase or a serious book on philosophy.