Here's a short review (because a GoodReads server glitch just lost a longer review and I'm not going to rewrite the whole thing): 
 Teju Cole handles the formless, plotless, rambling novel with considerably more grace than I would have expected in a first-time novelist. Narrator Julius has a strange perspective, but is a thoughtful observer of the macro aspects of life. He is a New Yorker by way of Nigeria by way of Germany, a lover of music, literature, and art, and a newly practicing psychiatrist. And he walks. He walks a lot, and thinks while he goes. This book is the product of those thoughts. 
 The nature of the book makes it easy to disengage occasionally, but as I was roaming about doing my own observing, I often thought of Julius and his connection with the world and wanted to get back to the book. 
 TOB Note: 
 This would do better in the 2012 Tournament of Books if it were in a different bracket. I think it'll get past the Art of Fielding, as it is more challenging and original, only to lose to the Marriage Plot in the second round.