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A review by taitmckenzie
The Experience of the Night by Christine Donougher, Marcel Béalu
4.0
A weird and beautiful novel that heavily influenced the Surrealists, The Experience of the Night is told through the illogic of dreams, and as such its highly symbolic plot doesn't make very much sense. But its scenes are breathtaking, and hint at a much more fantastic reality hiding behind the one we commonly think we live in, that is, the reality that exists in each of our subconscious. Read this for its vision, not its meaning.
From a technical perspective, this book would be more effective in its aim of transporting a person from everyday real life to the marvel of dreams if it actually depicted a recognizable reality in the first place. This is a personal frustration with a lot of surrealist literature: the assumption that the real world is there without the need to represent it through a historical context. It's difficult to take apart a real world if the reader is uncertain that they aren't dreaming the whole thing in the first place.
Mainly recommended for those who already appreciate the strange and uncertain. Is similar in tone and style to some of ETA Hoffman's tales.
From a technical perspective, this book would be more effective in its aim of transporting a person from everyday real life to the marvel of dreams if it actually depicted a recognizable reality in the first place. This is a personal frustration with a lot of surrealist literature: the assumption that the real world is there without the need to represent it through a historical context. It's difficult to take apart a real world if the reader is uncertain that they aren't dreaming the whole thing in the first place.
Mainly recommended for those who already appreciate the strange and uncertain. Is similar in tone and style to some of ETA Hoffman's tales.