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akemi_666's review
3.0
what begins as a comedy soon descends into terror
slowly, slowly; at the edge of one's perception
the menacing gape of the incomprehensible
slowly, slowly; at the edge of one's perception
the menacing gape of the incomprehensible
rupertowen's review
5.0
Having gleaned the reviews already on here about Alfred Jarry's The Supermale, I don't feel I really need to add much more. I will say however that I deeply enjoyed this work, it has the same anti-erotic absurd verve as Visits of Love, and in many ways experiments with the same themes. Like Shaw's Superman this is a character portrait that draws upon the Don Juan theme, except Jarry has fused it with Baron Munchausen, only to then give it the complete Ubu make-over. I will surely need to read this book again, if only to understand more thoroughly the metaphysics at work, especially concerning the philosophical views of Theophrastus. The level I read it at allowed for the luxurious imagery of the absurd to prick my senses - the ten thousand mile race fuelled by a super food (alcohol), seven nude tarts crashing through a window only to be tamed by a gramophone embedded amongst an arrangement of roses, and many other delights that Jarry has buried within the story. It will amuse and if not it will tickle your curiosity buds.
ederwin's review
3.0
I recently greatly enjoyed [b:Ubu enchaîné|37368154|Ubu enchaîné|Alfred Jarry|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1512974138l/37368154._SX50_.jpg|59035391], which has an absurd humor that still holds up for me even after all these years. I wanted to next try [b:Exploits & Opinions of Dr. Faustroll, Pataphysician: A Neo-Scientific Novel|207918|Exploits & Opinions of Dr. Faustroll, Pataphysician A Neo-Scientific Novel|Alfred Jarry|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1370229205l/207918._SX50_.jpg|45228328], but this book was more easily available, so I tried it instead.
Mostly it fails for me. The main story is about a guy trying to figure out whether a story he heard about a guy having sex with 70 women in one night is possible. There are quotations, often in untranslated Latin, from philosophers about this subject. So maybe this is relating to some ancient question, but I know nothing about whatever it is referring to. I was bored.
But the middle section of this book, which could be extracted and stand alone as a short story, is more interesting. It concerns a nightmarish 10,000 mile bicycle race by five men on a bicycle-built-for-five. Their pants are stuffed full of dirt so that they can relieve themselves in it without needing to stop. They eat nothing but "Perpetual Motion Food", which is mostly alcohol. One of them dies during the race, but since their legs are linked together by metal bars, the others continue, fighting rigor mortis now in addition to the rest. Utterly absurd, but works well as a literary nightmare.
I suspect this was an inspiration for "Funnyway", the first published story by [a:Serge Brussolo|227429|Serge Brussolo|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1316600549p2/227429.jpg] (sometimes called the French Steven King because he is equally prolific). While published as SF, and winning SF awards, "Funnyway" is closer in my mind to horror or "weird" fiction, concerning a bicycle race that seems to be a form of torture. It is one of the very few Brussolo stories that has been translated to English, and you can read it here. (Likewise, this novel could be called SF because it was written in 1902 but set in 1920, and it involves a science of sorts, but it really is something different.)
Jarry was definitely gifted, and influential, but this novel doesn't quite work for me.
I have no complaints about the translation by Barbara Wright.
Mostly it fails for me. The main story is about a guy trying to figure out whether a story he heard about a guy having sex with 70 women in one night is possible. There are quotations, often in untranslated Latin, from philosophers about this subject. So maybe this is relating to some ancient question, but I know nothing about whatever it is referring to. I was bored.
But the middle section of this book, which could be extracted and stand alone as a short story, is more interesting. It concerns a nightmarish 10,000 mile bicycle race by five men on a bicycle-built-for-five. Their pants are stuffed full of dirt so that they can relieve themselves in it without needing to stop. They eat nothing but "Perpetual Motion Food", which is mostly alcohol. One of them dies during the race, but since their legs are linked together by metal bars, the others continue, fighting rigor mortis now in addition to the rest. Utterly absurd, but works well as a literary nightmare.
I suspect this was an inspiration for "Funnyway", the first published story by [a:Serge Brussolo|227429|Serge Brussolo|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1316600549p2/227429.jpg] (sometimes called the French Steven King because he is equally prolific). While published as SF, and winning SF awards, "Funnyway" is closer in my mind to horror or "weird" fiction, concerning a bicycle race that seems to be a form of torture. It is one of the very few Brussolo stories that has been translated to English, and you can read it here. (Likewise, this novel could be called SF because it was written in 1902 but set in 1920, and it involves a science of sorts, but it really is something different.)
Jarry was definitely gifted, and influential, but this novel doesn't quite work for me.
I have no complaints about the translation by Barbara Wright.
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