A review by cryo_guy
Henri Duchemin and His Shadows by Emmanuel Bove

3.0

Charming enough in their own way. I bought this because Winter's Journal sounded interesting. I'd still like to read it, but these weren't that impressive. I think the best was Kafka without the punch and not as sympathetic as Bartleby (mentioned in the forward), the main issue being the narrator is someone else rather than the absurd hero. The others were good at psychological realism but suffered from overindulgent and overly neurotic narrators, a preoccupation with the inanities of heterosexual relationships, or a touch of ennui (other reviewers called these stories banal, but if this is what banality is, strike me down. I'd say they're more bland than banal and far too excitable to be mundane.).

I can only judge Bove so much for these short stories. And while they have flaws, there is a poignancy behind them to be discovered.