Ned Beauman’s The Teleportation Accident

Ned Beauman’s The Teleportation Accident is original and hilarious, although slightly rambling at times. The book is set across a few different places, including Berlin, Paris, and Los Angeles largely (although not exclusively) during the 1930s. Egon Loeser, the main protagonist, comes across as a little squeak of a man, self-absorbed to an absurdity, unable to get laid, and prone to finding the worst friends. Despite the vague backdrop of the Nazi rise to power, the book is ultimately light-hearted and enjoyable.

I enjoyed the main storyline and many of the individual scenes had me almost rolling on the floor. Where I thought Beauman went wrong was in some of his more tangential bits and jumping around in time. The ending in particular didn’t seem to fit the rest of the book. Bumbling along is part of the story, but I think a slightly tighter narrative at points would have served his purposes better. Nonetheless, I give the author major points for creativity and imagination in bringing out the bizarre eccentricities of people, no matter their historical circumstances.