Adam Haberberg

The blurb about this being a "nonhero's big adventure" is an accurate description. Nothing really happens in this book. The title character encounters a woman from his past, goes home with her and has dinner.

What makes the book good, along with confusing at times, is the writing. There is a constant jump between Adam's thoughts and his actual conversations with Marie-Therese. Sometimes, the formatting clues you in on these jumps, but sometimes it doesn't and that took me out of the story a bit. Reza tackles the internal conflict and utter confusion of Adam quite beautifully. The formatting however, and the jump from clear areas of dialogue to less clear sections, takes away from her talent for me. I'm not sure if that was intentional or show more possibly a change made in the translation. Nevertheless, I had a few people in mind to recommend it to while I was reading, which speaks to my own enjoyment of this very short, gladly uneventful novel. show less

A writer undergoing a midlife crisis encounters an old classmate who takes him home, fanning the flames of his anxiety. Very existential, very French, very entertaining.

Another amazing work by Yasmina Reza. This one especially got to me the way Salinger got to me once a long time ago. I write about it here:

http://mewlhouse.hubpages.com/hub/ADAM-HABERBERG-by-Yasmina-Reza