The Game for Real

The Game for Real

<div>Compared to Kafka and a member of the Surrealists, Richard Weiner is one of European literature’s best-kept secrets. <I>The Game for Real</I> marks the long overdue arrival of his dreamlike, anxiety-ridden fiction into English.<br><BR>The book opens with <I>The Game of Quartering,</I> where an unnamed hero discovers his double. Surely, he reasons, if <I>he</I> 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.<BR><BR>Following this, <I>The Game for the Honor of Payback</I> 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.<BR><BR>Blending metaphysical questions with farcical humor, bizarre twists, and acute psychology, <I>The Game for Real</I> is a riveting exploration of who we are — and why we can’t be so sure we know.<BR></div>