I recommend you read the reviews of this book before buying it especially The Guardian review. I failed to do this and regret deeply filling my mind with the poisonous verbiage of the protagonist. I know it is meant to be a witty commentary on prejudice and that the captain represents the opposite of the author's intelligent wisdom but still, life is too short for this.

Somebody give that crazy recorder-blowin', lecture-givin', nicotine-smokin', book-diggin', salmon-travelin', beard-growin', list-lovin' Semioticious polymath a High Five. Literature doesn't get much better than this. Read it, or be square, or whatever. It really is very good, even in translation.