THE CRAB NEBULA

by ¸ric Chevillard ‧ RELEASE DATE: Feb. 19, 1997

The first of this French writer's five novels to be translated into English is a funny, cryptic, disturbing mosaic portrayal of a nondescript man (identified only as ""Crab"") whose stunted life reveals itself as an amalgam of alternatively possible experiences and obsessions. Thus: Crab was born in prison, or else was born dead; plans to write the story of his life, unless he decides to kill himself; and so on. It's a work of surrealist fantasy given flesh and weight by the very real and very human longings that Chevillard locates in even his phlegmatic underground man's dafter flights of fancy. Out of Beckett and Kafka, and, despite that fact, a work of high and exhilarating originality.

Pub Date: Feb. 19, 1997

ISBN: 0803263708

Page Count: 126

Publisher: Univ. of Nebraska

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 1997

Categories: FICTION