Novel
Adventures in Immediate Irreality
Întâmplări în irealitatea imediată
Max Blecher · 1936
Synopsis
In a small Romanian provincial town, a nameless, solitary boy suffers fits: the objects in his room terrify him, he cannot bear to be alone in an unfamiliar room, and the world seems to him ready to dissolve. He hides with delight in the prompter's box of a theatre, spends time with Clara and her brother Eugen, who run a sewing-machine shop, and lets himself be fascinated by the cinema, fairs and wax museums. According to Dustin Illingworth, these episodes touch on first experiences of sex, the sense of death and social frustration.
Context
Begun in 1934 under another title, the book took its final title on the advice of Geo Bogza, according to Adevărul; it appeared in 1936 from Vremea, written when the author was already gravely ill, and was reissued in 1970 to little notice, according to The Modern Novel. Marianne Sora translated it into French for Denoël in 1973, with a preface by Ovid Crohmălniceanu; Michael Henry Heim produced an English version for New Directions in 2015, after those of Jeanie Han and Alistair Ian Blyth. The critics quoted by the American publisher compare it to Kafka, Bruno Schulz and Dalí.
Who it is for
A brief, semi-autobiographical novel made up of episodes that follow a dream logic; readable in French and in English.
Prizes and reception
Dustin Illingworth, in Words Without Borders, sees it as its author's masterpiece.
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