The Game for Real

Compared to Kafka and a member of the Surrealists, Richard Weiner is one of European literature s best-kept secrets. "The Game for Real" marks the long overdue arrival of his dreamlike, anxiety-ridden fiction into English.
The book opens with "The Game of Quartering, " where an unnamed hero disc [...]
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Compared to Kafka and a member of the Surrealists, Richard Weiner is one of European literature s best-kept secrets. "The Game for Real" marks the long overdue arrival of his dreamlike, anxiety-ridden fiction into English.
The book opens with "The Game of Quartering, " where an unnamed hero discovers his double. Surely, he reasons, if "he" has a double, then his double must also have a double too, and so on . . . What follows is a grotesquely hilarious, snowballing spree through Paris, where real-life landmarks disintegrate into theaters, puppet shows, and, ultimately, a funeral.
Following this, "The Game for the Honor of Payback" neatly inverts things: instead of a branching, expanding adventure, a man known as Shame embarks on a quest that collapses inward. Slapped by someone he despises, he launches a doomed crusade to return the insult. As the stakes grow ever higher, it seems that Shame will stop at nothing even if he discovers he s chasing his own tail.
Blending metaphysical questions with farcical humor, bizarre twists, and acute psychology, "The Game for Real" is a riveting exploration of who we are and why we can t be so sure we know.
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