The Wall: (Intimacy) and Other Stories

'The Wall', the lead story in this collection, introduces three political prisoners on the night prior to their execution. Through the gaze of an impartial doctor--seemingly there for the men's solace--their mental descent is charted in exquisite, often harrowing detail. And as the morning draws inexorably closer, the men cross the psychological wall between life and death, long before the first shot rings out. This brilliant snapshot of life in anguish is the perfect introduction to a collection of stories where the neurosis of the modern world is mirrored in the lives of the people that inhabit it . This is an unexpurgated edition translated from the French by Lloyd Alexander.

“I wanted my own words. But the ones I use have been dragged through I don't know how many consciences.”
― Jean-Paul Sartre, The Wall

My focus is on one of the book's title piece - The Wall. This existentialist story has the feel of a film shot in stark black and white; the prose is as hard boiled as it gets and is told in first-person. The opening scene takes place in a large bare room with white walls where the narrator, Pablo Ibbieta, a man we can visualize with a thin, chiseled face, slick back hair and looking a bit like Albert Camus or Humphrey Bogart - a visualization in keeping with the tone of one of those 1940s black and white films - is interrogated, and, along with two other men, sentenced to be shot dead. The three show more condemned are taken to a cellar with bench and mats, a room shivering cold and without a trace of warmth or humanity. The story unfolds in this hard, dank, ugly cellar room. Absurdity and despair, anyone?

Sartre has us live through the evening and night with Pablo and the two other convicted men: Tom, who has a thick neck and is fat around the middle (Pablo imagines bullets or bayonets cutting into his flesh), and Juan, who is young and has done nothing, other than being the brother of someone wanted by the authorities. We watch as Pablo and Tom and Juan turn old and gray; we smell urine when Tom unconsciously wets his pants; we hear Tom speaking of men executed by being run over by trucks to save ammunition.

A doctor enters the room and offers cigarettes and asks if anyone wants a priest. No one answers. Pablo falls asleep and wakes, having no thought of death or fear - what he is confronting is nameless; his reaction is physical - his cheeks burn and his head aches. Meanwhile, the doctor, referred to as the Belgian by Pablo, takes Juan's pulse and writes in his notebook. All is clinical; all is calculating. The cold penetrates - the doctor looks blue. Pablo sees that he himself is drenched in sweat. Sartre has written philosophical works such as Being and Nothingness where he addresses the meaninglessness of life and the reality of death in conceptual terms but in this story his ideas are given flesh and blood.

The core of this story is all three men dealing with their own death. Juan sobs. Tom talks so he can recognize himself, that is, talk as a way of anchoring his sense of self in the world. He says something is going to happen he doesn't understand: death is a blank for Tom. And also for Pablo, who observes how the doctor entered the cellar to watch bodies, bodies dying in agony while still alive.

Pablo remembers living as if immortal and reflects he spent his life counterfeiting eternity, although he missed nothing, he understood nothing. Meanwhile, Tom touches the wooden bench as if touching death. Now that Pablo is looking at things through the lens of death, objects appear less dense - several hours or several years are all the same when you have lost the illusion of being eternal. Pablo feels a horrible calm, a distance from his body; his feeling of being with his body is as if he is tied to an enormous vermin. Feeling your body as an enormous vermin - how disgusting and alienating. Just in case you are wondering if this is existentialism, this is existentialism.

The Doctor lets everyone know it is 3:30. At the mention of the time, Juan loses it and become hysterical but Pablo simply wants to die cleanly. After some time, the guards come in and take away Tom and Juan. Pablo hears shots fired out in the yard and wants to scream, but rather grits his teeth and pushes his hands in his pockets to stay clean. What does it mean to die cleanly? We are not given anything more specific.

Pablo is taken to the first floor where he is given a chance to live by revealing the whereabouts of one Ramon Gris. What happens from this point offers a twist, a twist, that is, for a tale soaking in absurdity, dread, alienation and death. Please read The Wall. You will be chilled; you will have an existentialist experience, you just might laugh so hard at the end you will start to cry. show less

My focus is on one of the book's five pieces - The Wall. This existentialist story has the feel of a film shot in stark black and white; the prose is as hard boiled as it gets, told in first-person. The opening scene takes place in a large bare room with white walls where the narrator, Pablo Ibbieta, a man we can visualize with a thin, chiseled face, slick back hair and looking a bit like Albert Camus or Humphrey Bogart - a visualization in keeping with the tone of black and white film - is interrogated, and, along with two other men, sentenced to be shot dead. The condemned are taken to a cellar with bench and mats, a room shivering cold and without a trace of warmth or humanity. The story unfolds here in the cellar room that's hard show more and dank and ugly. Absurdity and despair, anyone?

Sartre has us live through the evening and night with Pablo and the two other convicted men: Tom, who has a thick neck and is fat around the middle (Pablo imagines bullets or bayonets cutting into his flesh), and Juan, who is young and has done nothing, other than being the brother of someone wanted by the authorities. We watch as Pablo and Tom and Juan turn old and gray; we smell urine when Tom unconsciously wets his pants; we hear Tom saying how he heard men were executed by being run over by trucks to save ammunition.

A doctor enters the room and offers cigarettes and asks if anyone wants a priest. No one answers. Pablo falls asleep and wakes, having no thought of death or fear - what he is confronting is nameless; his reaction is physical - his cheeks burn and his head aches. Meanwhile, the doctor, referred to as the Belgian by Pablo, takes Juan's pulse and writes in his notebook. All is clinical; all is calculating. The cold penetrates - the doctor looks blue. Pablo sees that he himself is drenched in sweat. Sartre has written philosophical works such as Being and Nothingness where he deals with the meaninglessness of life and the reality of death in conceptual terms. In this story, his ideas are given flesh and blood.

The core of this story is everyone dealing with their own death. Tom talks so he can recognize himself --- talk as a way of anchoring his sense of self in the world. He says something is going to happen he doesn't understand: death is a blank for Tom. And also for Pablo, who observes the doctor entered the cellar to watch bodies, bodies dying in agony while still alive. Pablo remembers living as if immortal and reflects he spent his life counterfeiting eternity but he understood nothing although he missed nothing. Meanwhile, Tom touches the wooden bench as if touching death. Now that Pablo is looking at things through the lens of death, objects appear less dense -- several hours or several years are all the same when you have lost the illusion of being eternal. Pablo feels a horrible calm, a distance from his body; being with his body feels as if he is tied to an enormous vermin. Feeling your body as an enormous vermin - what disgust and alienation. Just in case you are wondering if this is existentialism - this is existentialism.

The Doctor lets everyone know it is 3:30. At the mention of the time, Juan loses it and become hysterical but Pablo simply wants to die cleanly. After some time, the guards come and take away Tom and Juan. Pablo hears shots fired out in the yard and wants to scream, but rather gritts his teeth and pushes his hands in his pockets to stay clean. What does it mean to die cleanly? We are not given anything more specific. Pablo is taken to the first floor where he is given a chance to live by revealing the whereabouts of one Ramon Gris. What happens from this point offers a twist, a twist, that is, for a tale soaking in absurdity, dread, alienation and death. Please order a copy of this book and read The Wall. You will be chilled; you will have an existentialist experience, you just might laugh so hard at the end you will start to cry. show less

https://fromtheheartofeurope.eu/intimacy-aka-the-wall-by-jean-paul-sartre/

A collection of five short stories by the famous philosopher, two of which, the first and the last, are really good; “The Wall” is the story of a man condemned to death in the Spanish Civil War awaiting his execution, and “Childhood of a Leader” is the story of an authoritarian politician’s rise to power and abandonment of his emotional connections. I was not as overwhelmed by the others; “Intimacy” is a rather dull story about sex, and portrayal of a serial killer in “Erostratus” is not really in tune with today’s Zeitgeist. But the two good ones are very good.

Sartre is a brilliant writer of fiction and this could have made up his career in another life. I loved these short stories, but the last, "The childhoold of a Leader", tracing the life of a fascist through his own memories, is a little unpleasant when the narrator is a child and then frightening when he is a young man and becomes a thoughtless, racist brute. It's almost too believable, except for the intelligence and awareness of its main character.

De muur (Le Mur) van Sartre is een bundeling van vijf novellen waar het eerste, gelijknamige, verhaal van iedereen te veel aandacht krijgt omdat het een vroeg voorbeeld van zijn existentialisme is. Dat zit voornamelijk in de climax, en hetgeen wat er in aanloop toe gebeurt is in vergelijking met de andere verhalen eigenlijk iets zwakker. Het tweede verhaal is prima, met het fantastische element als hoogtepunt. Het derde verhaal van de sigma loner is het best vertaald denk ik, en de spanning in het verhaal is goed verdeeld. Het vierde verhaal was een beetje verwarrend (komt misschien door vertaling, wie weet?) met de verteller die verandert van een personage naar auctoriaal en dat door een paragraaf heen totdat de vriendin het overneemt show more en dan over en weer tot het einde. Het laatste verhaal is het langste, ook het meest expliciete, over een jongen met complexen en een homoseksuele ervaring, wat uiteindelijk leidt naar een fascist die Joden in elkaar slaat (laatste zin: "Misschien moet ik maar een snor laten groeien" (1939)). De overgang naar jodenhatende Lucien (het desbetreffende hoofdpersonage) ging een beetje te snel wat het wat ongeloofwaardig laat voelen, zeker met dat hele begin over zijn onzekere jeugd waar joden niet genoemd worden? Ja, hij moet een leider zijn, oké, dan moet je dat maar op dé grote leider van 1939 (Time Person of the Year 1938) baseren. Prima. Grappig dat van de vijf verhalen, drie gedragen worden door mannelijke hoofdpersonen, en twee door vrouwen (die zich dan vooral over hun mannen bekommeren) en Sartre fopt ons even, door in het laatste verhaal de jongen ook vrouwelijke trekken te geven, een femboy als het ware, als culminatie! Helaas is de aloude conclusie nog steeds waar; van femboys komen fascisten. Algoeds. show less

This short story collection by Sartre was unexpected, and it's still really sinking in, but I feel that it has a lot to offer to the contemporary reader. Sartre is a complicated writer, one that has vast undercurrents and philosophical connotations with his work. This might not always be apparent while you are reading, but when you are finished sections (or stories) you kind of get the grasp of what he is trying to say- or get at. Overall, a good collection of short stories that shouldn't be missed for aspiring writers, world literature fans, French-lit enthusiasts, or those interested in philosophy itself.

3.5 stars.