Thomas Glavinic Wie man leben soll (How to Live Life) Deutscher Taschenbuch Verlag, April 2004. 239 pp. ISBN 3-423-24392-9 Charlie is an overweight Austrian teenager with an alcoholic mother and a whole host of uncles and aunts. As a spotty fatso who is eighty-seven percent conformist, he meanders through life, working as little as possible, studying half-heartedly, experimenting with sex and indulging in daytime fantasies in which he is always the admired hero. Thanks to his avid reading of 'How To' guides - his only serious interest - he manages to electrocute one of his uncles and give his great aunt Ernestine a heart attack - on both occasions with fatal results. And when his girlfriend chokes to death on a fishbone, he attempts to save her by performing a tracheotomy, having no idea, of course, where the trachea is. Having lived through his early twenties studying history of art and surviving on handouts from his aunts and uncles, Charlie is dragged along to taxi-driver training by one of his friends and actually sticks at the job, growing steadily fatter and fatter. At the age of thirty-three he is talent-spotted in the street and chosen to appear on a programme ostensibly about overweight taxi drivers but in fact a hidden-camera reality show documenting the way in which the drivers flirt with young girls planted at the auditions. Charlie is snapped up by a record company and releases a number one hit single. Funny, sarcastic and at times surreal, the novel ends on a poignant note. As a famous pop star Charlie visits his mother, who has formerly paid him scant attention, and is greeted with dancing and laughter. So maybe money can buy you love? This entertaining frolic is amusingly unpredictable and manages to be thought-provoking without ever losing its lightness or humour. It puts a new spin on sex, money and fame, and presents us with an unusual new set of rules for life.