THE NIGHT OF THE GIRAFFE And Other Stories

by Alfred Andersch ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 27, 1964

A most promising modern form for literary innovation -- the short story; but too often the novelty emerges from artificial, rhetorical language, and not from the story. In the ten selections by this well-established German modern, the story is the thing -- direct and unpretentious in language, each narrative effects a strong commentary on the segment of Contemporanea that it handles. In Paris, the shadow of the Caullist giraffe hovers over a young patriot as he comes to terms with his own ambitions in the Algerian crisis; a phantom GI escapes the reality of his own survival in the Ardennes; a German financier of the ""Wunderkind"" variety makes a crocodile tour through French chateau country, lamenting the decaying antiquities he loves, and thereby denigrating his own industrial monuments as well; in bizarre, drunken retreat, a university professor drives his mother into off-limits East German territory, bringing a denouement to his own half-lit existence; and other equally fascinating characters are brought face to face with war, boredom, neurosis, or their own particular mystique. Sparse of verbiage, effective in various prose techniques -- each story makes a mark far beyond the confines of its situation. Some of the tales have been published before in the Evergreen Review, others are newly translated offerings -- and every one welcomes Andersch into the slim no-man's-land of the successful short story.

Pub Date: Oct. 27, 1964

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: *Tantheon

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 1964

Categories: FICTION