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3.86 AVERAGE
3.86 AVERAGE
Non so cosa dire se non che non mi è piaciuto, ho fatto fatica a finirlo, non ho compreso il senso di niente. Mi ha annoiato molto.
Avevo alte aspettative che sono state deluse.
Avevo alte aspettative che sono state deluse.
This was fantastic.
A man named Trelkovsky is looking for a new apartment and comes across one that is available due to the attempted suicide of the previous tenant. She didn't die but is bandaged and speechless in hospital after coming out of a coma and he visits her there, meeting one of her friends, Stella, in the process. After moving into the apartment, he discovers that the woman (Simone Choule) has sadly died. As soon as Trelkovsky moves in, it becomes apparent that his neighbours (and landlord) are a bunch of unctuous curtain-twitchers who love to moan about the excessive noise he makes. He becomes increasingly paranoid and cautious about their judgements and snide whispering. At the same time, he becomes more fascinated by the death and apparent suicide of Simone Choule and ruminates on what might have caused it. What follows is a curious obsession and mania which culminates in one of the most disturbing and creepy endings I think I've ever come across.
It's difficult to speak about this book without giving away important spoilers. Suffice it to say, Trelkovsky's obsession takes him over and his descent into madness is wonderfully realised, a slow process that builds cleverly through character relationships and discoveries. The little details are sublime and the writing, always concise and clear but occasionally profound, is a joy to read. The chapters fly by and provide a pace and structure that is almost too perfect for words. All the way to the end, I couldn't be certain if what was happening was actually happening or if it was something else entirely. Only the epilogue offers any definitive answer to this and while it's monstrously creepy, it is, ultimately, a conclusion that comes entirely from Trelkovsky's own perspective. So we still don't really know what was going on.
I loved the way Torpor maintained a simplistic approach and grounded everything in reality. The story, events, and writing, are all very matter of fact. It allowed for the spiraling uncertainty, the eerie fog, to be more convincing and more perverse. The moment when Trelkovsky wakes up 'looking different' caused a shudder to go through me without ever taking me away from that feeling of everything being very down to earth. It's hard to explain. Certain books are just very good at keeping their toes in the water of reality even when things become bizarre and unnatural.
This was an amazing exploration of paranoia and a pleasure to read.
A man named Trelkovsky is looking for a new apartment and comes across one that is available due to the attempted suicide of the previous tenant. She didn't die but is bandaged and speechless in hospital after coming out of a coma and he visits her there, meeting one of her friends, Stella, in the process. After moving into the apartment, he discovers that the woman (Simone Choule) has sadly died. As soon as Trelkovsky moves in, it becomes apparent that his neighbours (and landlord) are a bunch of unctuous curtain-twitchers who love to moan about the excessive noise he makes. He becomes increasingly paranoid and cautious about their judgements and snide whispering. At the same time, he becomes more fascinated by the death and apparent suicide of Simone Choule and ruminates on what might have caused it. What follows is a curious obsession and mania which culminates in one of the most disturbing and creepy endings I think I've ever come across.
It's difficult to speak about this book without giving away important spoilers. Suffice it to say, Trelkovsky's obsession takes him over and his descent into madness is wonderfully realised, a slow process that builds cleverly through character relationships and discoveries. The little details are sublime and the writing, always concise and clear but occasionally profound, is a joy to read. The chapters fly by and provide a pace and structure that is almost too perfect for words. All the way to the end, I couldn't be certain if what was happening was actually happening or if it was something else entirely. Only the epilogue offers any definitive answer to this and while it's monstrously creepy, it is, ultimately, a conclusion that comes entirely from Trelkovsky's own perspective. So we still don't really know what was going on.
I loved the way Torpor maintained a simplistic approach and grounded everything in reality. The story, events, and writing, are all very matter of fact. It allowed for the spiraling uncertainty, the eerie fog, to be more convincing and more perverse. The moment when Trelkovsky wakes up 'looking different' caused a shudder to go through me without ever taking me away from that feeling of everything being very down to earth. It's hard to explain. Certain books are just very good at keeping their toes in the water of reality even when things become bizarre and unnatural.
This was an amazing exploration of paranoia and a pleasure to read.
La forza dell'inconscio
"Dalla sua finestra poteva vedere tutto quello che succedeva nella toilette di fianco.
Alcune persone si comportavano in maniera strana: entravano nel bagno, ma rimanevano in piedi, immobili, per un certo periodo di tempo; poi, ubbidendo ad un invisibile segnale, tiravano la catena e se ne andavano. Erano uomini e donne, ma Trelkovsky non riusciva a distinguere i loro lineamenti."
"Vide, accoccolata sul W.C., una donna che riconobbe immediatamente: Simonetta Choule. Incollò il naso al vetro. E allora, come se avesse sentito la sua presenza, lei girò lentamente il viso nella sua direzione. Con una mano cominciò a rimuoversi le bende che la ricoprivano. Non lasciò apparire che la metà inferiore, fin sotto il naso. Un orrendo sorriso le allargò la bocca."
Spaventoso constatare come la realtà quotidiana, fatta di piccoli gesti ripetuti giorno dopo giorno, reiterati sino allo sfinimento, possano tramutarsi nell'anticamera di quell'antro profondo e inintelligibile che è l'inconscio.
La stessa realtà viene divelta alla radice; si deforma senza regole né raziocinio, mentre i fantasmi della mente emergono da reconditi anfratti per affiorare alla luce del sole, inafferrabili e inesorabili.
Il romanzo di Topov si dipana in una storia surreale, dai contorni sfumati e senza soluzione di continuità; le stesse manifestazioni del sovrannaturale, sempre che possano essere considerate tali, sono precipue nel sondare la psiche e le sue potenzialità.
"Dalla sua finestra poteva vedere tutto quello che succedeva nella toilette di fianco.
Alcune persone si comportavano in maniera strana: entravano nel bagno, ma rimanevano in piedi, immobili, per un certo periodo di tempo; poi, ubbidendo ad un invisibile segnale, tiravano la catena e se ne andavano. Erano uomini e donne, ma Trelkovsky non riusciva a distinguere i loro lineamenti."
"Vide, accoccolata sul W.C., una donna che riconobbe immediatamente: Simonetta Choule. Incollò il naso al vetro. E allora, come se avesse sentito la sua presenza, lei girò lentamente il viso nella sua direzione. Con una mano cominciò a rimuoversi le bende che la ricoprivano. Non lasciò apparire che la metà inferiore, fin sotto il naso. Un orrendo sorriso le allargò la bocca."
Spaventoso constatare come la realtà quotidiana, fatta di piccoli gesti ripetuti giorno dopo giorno, reiterati sino allo sfinimento, possano tramutarsi nell'anticamera di quell'antro profondo e inintelligibile che è l'inconscio.
La stessa realtà viene divelta alla radice; si deforma senza regole né raziocinio, mentre i fantasmi della mente emergono da reconditi anfratti per affiorare alla luce del sole, inafferrabili e inesorabili.
Il romanzo di Topov si dipana in una storia surreale, dai contorni sfumati e senza soluzione di continuità; le stesse manifestazioni del sovrannaturale, sempre che possano essere considerate tali, sono precipue nel sondare la psiche e le sue potenzialità.
Racconto lungo (o romanzo breve) praticamente perfetto, che ricorda curiosamente Fiocco Rosso a New York di Ira Levin (Polanski ha tratto un film da entrambi).
Trelkovski subentra nell'appartamento la cui precedente inquilina si è suicidata. Ossessionato dalle lamentele dei vicini per il minimo rumore, inizia un viaggio onirico che lo spinge sempre di più a mettersi nei panni della precedente inquilina.
Un piano inclinato di 160 pagine in cui la follia prende velocità in modo graduale ma inesorabile.
Trelkovski subentra nell'appartamento la cui precedente inquilina si è suicidata. Ossessionato dalle lamentele dei vicini per il minimo rumore, inizia un viaggio onirico che lo spinge sempre di più a mettersi nei panni della precedente inquilina.
Un piano inclinato di 160 pagine in cui la follia prende velocità in modo graduale ma inesorabile.
One of the greatest examinations of alienation post-Kafka.
Similarily as in Kafka, the alienating process begins with a deterritorializing event (arrest of Joseph K., the arrival to an unkown village in The Castle doubled with a change from the role of land surveyor, loss of a living space in The Tenant). The character is removed from the space they occupied and forcefully thrown into a situation they had no desire to find themselves in. As they do not occupy a space and are unwilling to fit into the one provided for them, alienation ensues.
In Topor this forcing into a role is more explicit. Trelkovsky is expected to not only obey, but to obey willingly. His spiteful compliance is not enough, he must himself want to give in to the role bestowed upon him. The alienating process touches upon every aspect of his personal life. He is alienated not only from himself but from other people. The alienation from himself shows in his inability to enjoy sexual encounter with Stella, as he did in the beginning of the book. In fact it is not long after the first encounter when the previous tenant passes away, and her role is magically forced onto Trelkovsky, as if it was a spirit looking for a new host.
There is of course no spirit, just Trelkovsky's neighbours who, in their love of peace and conserving the state of things, attempt to force him into a role. Trelkovsky despite his struggles can not resist. He is alienated from friends from work, he is alienated from himself, he is soon alienated from Stella who he believed was the only person who he could trust. All his attempts to escape are in vain: if he complies he looses the grip on himself (he started enjoying wearing Simone Choule's clothes and presenting himself as a woman), if he resists he still is not himself (his attempts to not be like Simone end up with him being neither himself nor Simone; when he tries to order the coffee and cigarettes he specifically wants, instead of the ones Simone used to order, he is denied but decides to order something different and is satisfied with wine: something neither he nor Simone used to drink).
The Tenant displays extremely accurately the general feelings of alienation, loneliness and loss of oneself in the 1960s. The theoretical texts of the situationists could serve as a good proof of this. The connection between their theories and the explicit themes in Topor's work is apparent. At the very least The Tenant is an extraordinary reaplication of Kafkaian themes for the turbulent times of pre-May 68 France.
Similarily as in Kafka, the alienating process begins with a deterritorializing event (arrest of Joseph K., the arrival to an unkown village in The Castle doubled with a change from the role of land surveyor, loss of a living space in The Tenant). The character is removed from the space they occupied and forcefully thrown into a situation they had no desire to find themselves in. As they do not occupy a space and are unwilling to fit into the one provided for them, alienation ensues.
In Topor this forcing into a role is more explicit. Trelkovsky is expected to not only obey, but to obey willingly. His spiteful compliance is not enough, he must himself want to give in to the role bestowed upon him. The alienating process touches upon every aspect of his personal life. He is alienated not only from himself but from other people. The alienation from himself shows in his inability to enjoy sexual encounter with Stella, as he did in the beginning of the book. In fact it is not long after the first encounter when the previous tenant passes away, and her role is magically forced onto Trelkovsky, as if it was a spirit looking for a new host.
There is of course no spirit, just Trelkovsky's neighbours who, in their love of peace and conserving the state of things, attempt to force him into a role. Trelkovsky despite his struggles can not resist. He is alienated from friends from work, he is alienated from himself, he is soon alienated from Stella who he believed was the only person who he could trust. All his attempts to escape are in vain: if he complies he looses the grip on himself (he started enjoying wearing Simone Choule's clothes and presenting himself as a woman), if he resists he still is not himself (his attempts to not be like Simone end up with him being neither himself nor Simone; when he tries to order the coffee and cigarettes he specifically wants, instead of the ones Simone used to order, he is denied but decides to order something different and is satisfied with wine: something neither he nor Simone used to drink).
The Tenant displays extremely accurately the general feelings of alienation, loneliness and loss of oneself in the 1960s. The theoretical texts of the situationists could serve as a good proof of this. The connection between their theories and the explicit themes in Topor's work is apparent. At the very least The Tenant is an extraordinary reaplication of Kafkaian themes for the turbulent times of pre-May 68 France.
dark
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
Pues no me gustó del todo, confuso y al principio no se ve a dónde se quiere ir con la historia. El final es un poco mejor pero hay por ahí una película sobre algo similar que es súper buena así que con la comparación, el libro se queda corto.
کتاب رو تند تند خوندم بفهمم داره چی میشه، آخرشم نفهمیدم درست. ولی در عین حال که عی میگفتم این کتاب کجاش دلهرهآوره ولی یهو به خودم اومدم دیدم دارم میترسم که نصف شبی که همه خوابن دارم میخونمش. :)))
challenging
dark
mysterious
slow-paced
damn that ending got me
dark
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes