L'homme qui se laissait pousser la barbe

Olivier Schrauwen

Publié par

Résumé

The Man Who Grew His Beard collects seven short stories. Though each stands alone, they are intertwined thematically, offering peeks into the minds of semi-autistic, achingly isolated men, their feverish inner worlds and how they interact and contrast with their real environment. Though Schrauwen taps 'surrealist' or 'absurdist' impulses in his work, you will not read a more careful and precise collection of stories this year. The stories included are: "Hair Types," a hilarious piece that on the surface explores the pseudoscientific classification of personality as a function of hair but becomes something more akin to a fable about self-fulfilling prophecy; "Chromo Congo," a silent story about two men on safari who meet a corpulent and obnoxious hunter; as well as "The Task," "The Man Who Grew His Beard," "The Lock," "The Cave," and "The Imaginist."