The Game for Real

Richard Weiner

Paperback

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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.

Book Details

Publisher: Two Lines Press
Publish Date: May 12nd, 2015
Pages: 256
Language: English
Edition: undefined - undefined
Dimensions: 8.00in - 5.00in - 1.30in - 0.70lb
EAN: 9781931883443
Categories: • Literary

About the Author

Richard Weiner (1884-1937) is widely considered to be one of the most important Czech writers of the 20th century. The author of several works of poetry and prose, his writing was suppressed during the Communist period and only became recognized for its importance after 1989.

Benjamin Paloff is a professor of Slavic languages and literatures at the University of Michigan. He is the translator of several works of prose and poetry and the author of a book of poetry, The Politics. He lives in Ann Arbor, MI.

Praise for this book

"For me, the pinnacles of prose are Hasek, Kafka, Weiner, Klima." -- Bohumil Hrabal, author of Harlequin's Millions

"These novellas are intense, funny, and vivid explorations of selfhood and identity. Their publication was long overdue." -- Electric Literature

"Well worth the effort for moments of beauty and the overwhelming sense of anxiety." -- Publishers Weekly

"In this strange and compelling novel . . . the settings and characters morph and blend in a constantly shifting phantasmagoria of existential angst. One of Modernism's true gems." -- Numéro Cinq

"He really is a kind of European mind, that brings in the experience of trench warfare in Serbia, of cafés of a provincial capital of the Hapsburg Empire and a close connection with the Parisian avant-garde, as well as just the fact that his stories are just so enjoyable to read." -- Radio Prague

"Weiner's strength lies in his exceptional turns of phrase. . . . [His] arresting prose and aptitude for depicting the nuances of human cruelty should . . . encourage future translations." -- Times Literary Supplement

"The crowning achievement of Richard Weiner's career and one of the most powerful works of Czech Modernist literature." -- PEN America

"Richard Weiner is considered to be one of the most important Czech
writers of the 20th century." -- Alfred Thomas, professor of European Literature, University of Illinois