Adventures In Immediate Irreality

Adventures In Immediate Irreality | Max Blecher

so-so

This psychological and metaphysical prose was published in the 1930s. It feels like a confession, where the outside world is perceived as too common, boring and useless and the narrator struggles to escape it by hiding in his inner world, where anxiety, unrest and morbid thoughts torture him.

Bookwomble I gave up on this one when it started describing child sexual abuse and had recently been thinking of trying it again now I'm prepared for that content, but I think perhaps not, after all. 1y

IuliaC @Bookwomble Now that you've mentioned it, I'm not sure if that was an actual scene which took place in reality, or just a bizzare imagining in the narrator's hyperreality where he placed precocious or forbidden love experiences... 1y

Bookwomble @IuliaC I think you're right, but narratively real or imagined, I wasn't prepared for those scenes, which put me off, at least temporarily, from continuing. On reflection, I don't think I will go back to it. 1y

IuliaC @Bookwomble I can understand why. I found this book hard to read in general 1y

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Bookwomble

Adventures In Immediate Irreality | Max Blecher

bailed

I'm surprised that none of the other reviews I've seen mention the several instances of child sexual abuse described by the narrrator in chapters two and three. Whatever the book's literary merits may (or may not) be, and whether the narrator's experiences and actions are explained and contextualised later on, I don't think I want to read further. š‘‡š¸¼

Bookwomble I can, perhaps, interpret for myself the "immediate irreality" the narrator describes as being a kind of trauma dissociation, but the story does not seems to be going in that direction, and I really don't feel like finding out at this point. I wish there had been some indication of the nature of this part of the story in the book description, as I could have just avoided it then. 4y

GingerAntics I was just looking at this book earlier today. Thanks for the heads up. I‘m going to pass on it as well. 4y

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Bookwomble

Adventures In Immediate Irreality | Max Blecher

I've had something of a book hangover from Julien Gracq's "ChĆ¢teau d'Argol"; it's taken me a couple of days to absorb its atmosphere but I'm ready to read again, and this one is up next.
A series of sick-bed visions superimposed on real life (whatever that is), Blecher is compared in the blurb to Kafka, so that's a good sign.

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