In Between The Sheets

by Ian McEwan

The second collection of short stories.

Call them transcripts of dreams or deadly accurate maps of the tremor zones of the psyche, the seven stories in this collection engage and implicate us in the most fearful ways imaginable. A two-timing pornographer becomes an unwilling object in the fantasies of one of his victims. A jaded millionaire buys himself the perfect mistress and plunges into a hell of jealousy and despair.

Librarian's Note: this is an alternate cover edition - ISBN 10: 0099754711

Genres: Short Stories, Fiction, Literature, British Literature, Contemporary, Literary Fiction, 20th Century

134 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1977

About the author

Ian McEwan studied at the University of Sussex, where he received a BA degree in English Literature in 1970 and later received his MA degree in English Literature at the University of East Anglia.

McEwan's works have earned him worldwide critical acclaim. He won the Somerset Maugham Award in 1976 for his first collection of short stories First Love, Last Rites; the Whitbread Novel Award (1987) and the Prix Fémina Etranger (1993) for The Child in Time; and Germany's Shakespeare Prize in 1999. He has been shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize for Fiction numerous times, winning the award for Amsterdam in 1998. His novel Atonement received the WH Smith Literary Award (2002), National Book Critics' Circle Fiction Award (2003), Los Angeles Times Prize for Fiction (2003), and the Santiago Prize for the European Novel (2004). He was awarded a CBE in 2000. In 2006, he won the James Tait Black Memorial Prize for his novel Saturday and his novel On Chesil Beach was named Galaxy Book of the Year at the 2008 British Book Awards where McEwan was also named Reader's Digest Author of the Year.

McEwan lives in London.

Reviews

[Orsodimondo · Rating 4 out of 5]

ACCAREZZARE I DETTAGLI



Seconda raccolta di racconti per McEwan, e forse seconda pubblicazione in assoluto: anche se nello stesso anno uscì il suo primo romanzo, Il giardino di cemento, e sinceramente non so quale dei due apparve prima. Ma credo questi sette racconti.

Che proseguono quella vena del primo McEwan, il suo periodo che preferisco, di storie piuttosto domestiche, intrise di sesso, venate di gotico, con una buona propensione alla ferocia, alla perversione e all’ironia crudele, tanto da meritargli a quell’epoca il soprannome di Ian Macabre. Una quotidianità che sconfina nell’onirico, ma rimane coi piedi per terra.



Una malattia inventata per darsi importanza davanti al fratello maggiore, e visto che la storia è ambientata in un pornoshop, la fantomatica malattia non potrebbe che essere lo scolo.
Un uomo si sveglia al mattino dopo un incubo e scopre che sua figlia è lì accanto al suo letto, la bimba lo sta fissando e lo guardava anche mentre dormiva.
Una scrittrice è in pieno blocco dello scrittore dopo un primo e unico libro pubblicato con buon successo: col fidanzato va male, non si parlano più, i gusti sessuali di lui l’ha bloccano. E allora perché non adottare una scimmia…

I due racconti che preferisco sono Due frammenti: sabato e domenica, marzo 199- e Morta venendo. Ma su tutti aleggia un senso di inquietudine che rinvigorisce la lettura.


Edo Bertoglio: Ann. 1979 (sulla copertina)


Ian McEwan nel 1976.

[Emily B · Rating 2 out of 5]

A mixture of hit and miss short stories for me. I’ve always struggled with Mcewan’s work however I think this is the first one I’ve been able to finish
I particularly enjoyed the story concerning a man who falls in love with a mannequin

[Jadranka · Rating 4 out of 5]

Stvarno ne znam šta je to što me toliko fascinira u Makjuanovom pisanju, ali svaki put mi legne k'o budali šamar.
"Geometrija tela" je zbirka 4 priče (tzv. rani radovi) koja, kao i njegova kasnija dela, za centralnu temu ima disfunkcionalne odnose između pojedinaca koji liče na naše poznanike, kolege sa posla, ili komšije, sa umerenom dozom izvetropirenosti i seksualnom konotacijom. Poslednja priča, Psihopolis, je i najslabija, ali nikako ne kvari sveopšti utisak.
Ova zbirka je pravi pokazatelj u kom pravcu će se kretati Makjuanovo kasnije stvaralaštvo.

Ocena: 4*

[Kristijan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Geometrija tela je zbirka četiri priče Ijana Makjuana kroz koje se provlači skoro ista tematika - seks, disfunkcionalnost porodice, izolacija i samoća, ali pre svega patološki odnosi između naizgled normalnih ljudi. Ove priče su nastale pre romana koji su mu doneli svetsku slavu i u njima se vidi ona crta lucidnosti autora i njegova opsednutost naizgled normalnim životom pri čemu se pod prašinom normalnosti (koja se nahvatala na životima glavnih likova) krije izvitoperenost i uma i duše. Ove četiri priče prikazuju patologiju savremenog društva koju samo Makjuan ume da prikaže tako "normalnom" i svakodnevnom.
Ono što dominira pričama jeste Makjuanov stil pisanja - toliko tečan, dinamičan, precizan,... Priče jesu intrigantne i uvrnute, ali svakoj se može naslutiti kraj.
Najbolja priča je naravno ona po kojoj je zbirka i dobila ime - Geometrija tela. Svaka sledeća priča je za nijansu slabija od prethodne, ali po završetku čitanja čitalac ipak ne ostaje razočaran.
Ljubitelji Makjuana će uživati u ovoj zbirki jer ona predstavlja značajnu etapu njegovog razvojnog puta.

[Michelle · Rating 1 out of 5]

What a disappointment. It's like McEwan (or his publisher) took all the outtakes from the exquisite, Somerset Maugham award-winning First Love, Last Rites and stuck them in their own collection to capitalize on it. There was none of the sick beauty of his other work, which I know, love, and look for. Each of these stories seemed to be afterthoughts, or B-sides, if you will, but bad B-sides. At least this collection was mercifully short.

[brian · Rating 1 out of 5]

decided to plow through mcewan's body of work only to discover that i kinda loathe the early stuff. and while i don't particularly enjoy slamming a writer i admire i find it encouraging that the same guy who wrote this piece o' shit went on to write atonement and on chesil beach. gives all of us toiling away in secrecy and mediocrity some hope, eh?

[Nood-Lesse · Rating 3 out of 5]

Sommozzare

Avevo la curiosità di provare McEwan sulla distanza breve, così questa edizione con soli sette racconti mi è parsa ottimale.




PORNOGRAFIA prende una piega minacciosa circa a ¾, prima sembra la storia innocua di due fratelli che gestiscono con scarsa fortuna un sexy shop. Mi è piaciuta l’immagine
Prego signori, se posso esservi utile, le riviste sono tutte in vendita. - Si dispersero davanti a lui come polli terrorizzati, e all’improvviso fu solo nel negozio.
Rende bene l’idea


RIFLESSIONI DI UN PRIMATE IN CATTIVITA’ ha a che vedere con la scrittura, non è del tutto comprensibile, forse bisognerebbe essere scrittori e vittime del blocco tipico del mestiere, oppure essere innamorati di un qualche artista prima di scoprire di non essere noi i protagonisti dei suoi sogni ad occhi aperti


DUE FRAMMENTI.. Conduce in una Londra post apocalittica e si fatica a capire in che modo. Tre frammenti all’apparenza scollegati vengono aggiuntati tramite il linguaggio onirico


MORTA VENENDO E’ il racconto più particolare della raccolta, me ne ha evocato uno di Cat Person che ho letto recentemente. L’egoismo del protagonista è tale da far fallire tre matrimoni e da trasformarsi infine in amore per il manichino di un negozio. No, non pensate ad un rapporto gay, con una scusa il ricco uomo d’affari londinese acquisterà Helen (le ha dato anche un nome dopo essersi numerose volte fermato a contemplarla in vetrina) insieme agli abiti che indossa. La porterà nel suo lussuoso appartamento e ci racconterà del suo rapporto con lei, fatto di lunghi silenzi.. E’ un racconto che fa riflettere sulle pretese e sulle paranoie (riuscirà a deteriorare anche il rapporto con il manichino) che ognuno di noi porta in dote in quell’unione che prende il nome di coppia.


FRA LE LENZUOLA Carica sessuale già nel titolo, senso di incertezza, poi allusioni all’incesto, all’amore saffico, a quello coniugale di una donna che non ha mai amato il marito, che dal canto suo non ha mai amato sua moglie
Lei lo odiava per la sua pavidità, la sua passività e per tutte quelle ore sprecate fra le lenzuola. Le ci vollero molti anni di matrimonio per riuscire a dirlo. Tanto sperimentalismo come scrittore, neanche un po’ nella vita. Lo odiava.
Nessuno sperimentalismo nella vita, cioè a letto. Ancora uno scrittore che aleggia fra i personaggi di McEwan


SU E GIU’ Racconto fiabesco prima, surreale poi. Difficile da seguire, soprattutto dopo pranzo, in fase digestiva.


PSICOPOLI Diventa interessante quando nel terzo atto esce fuori una pistola che nel primo non c’era (e infatti non sparerà se non per finzione).



Non si tratta del tipo di racconti che prediligo, prevale la surrealtà anche quando la narrazione subisce l’inevitabile attrazione da parte della forza di gravità sessuale. McEwan scrive: un bel racconto è notoriamente difficile da scrivere, forse più difficile di un romanzo, e i racconti mediocri vanno a fondo in un baleno.
Dovrei assoldare una squadra si sommozzatori per recuperarne almeno quattro di questa raccolta, due dei quali colati a picco già durante la lettura.

Colonna sonora scelta da McEwan
Rolling Stones - Live With Me
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jxZgV...

Bach - Violin Sonata No. 1 in G minor
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FTUWC...

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

A me a leggere They’re so twentieth century invece è venuta in mente
The Doors - Twentieth Century Fox
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fJgy9...

[Faith · Rating 5 out of 5]

I guess I have a very different view from most people here. I enjoyed this book because I felt that it was very well crafted. As absurd as the premises of the stories were, McEwan manages to make them "believable" and yet intriguing through his description. Also, even though it is highly sensual, the stories and scenes were very well written. Such that it is tasteful and artistic, rather than how most romantic novels are "trashy" with those scenes. Case in point: fifty shades of grey; it's like pure poison to the brain.

[Ana Cristina Lee · Rating 3 out of 5]

Colección de relatos primerizos que contiene algunas de las obsesiones del autor, especialmente las conexiones entre la pasión amorosa y formas de violencia y sadismo, como ya ocurría en El placer del viajero.

Son relatos perturbadores, no demasiado agradables, que incomodan y exploran las zonas oscuras del comportamiento humano pero en ámbitos muy cotidianos y con personajes bastante anodinos.

Obviamente, está muy por detrás de sus mejores obras como Expiación, Sábado o On Chesil Beach, pero puede ser interesante para los aficionados a Ian McEwan que quieran rastrear el germen de sus obsesiones literarias.

[Maciek · Rating 2 out of 5]

In Between the Sheets is Ian McEwan's second short story collection, after First Love, Last Rites - both published early in his career, in 1975 and 1978, and both containing very dark and disturbing literary experiments.

Unfortunately, while First Love, Last Rites is a genuine collection of interesting, experimental stories, In Between the Sheets is more like a collection of outtakes from that volume. Both collections feature stories that are twisted and macabre, but while in First Love the macabre is never out of place and all the gimmicks work, in In Between The Sheets they simply don't and fail leave much impact. The stories are often surreal - reflections of a Kept Ape is written in overblown and baroque prose by a literal ape, seduced and imprisoned by a woman who has written a bestselling novel, but now suffers from writer's block; Dead as They come has a man fall in love with a window mannequin. The opening story, Pornography, features no weird and bizarre elements from other shorts - its set in the London borough of Soho, with all its filth, decay and grime chronicled to a T. In the story two brothers work in a porn shop - one owns it, and the other tries to get customers to actually purchase some magazines and balances a relationship with two mistresses in the meantime - with a predictable ending. This story perhaps best illustrates how the collection has aged - who buys pornographic magazines nowadays, and are there still actual stores which have only this kind of stuff?

Best recommended for completists and fans of the author - though be prepared for something different, as it is a completely different Ian McEwan from theo ne who wrote Atonement or On Chesil Beach.

[Plch · Rating 3 out of 5]

Probably I prefer these ugly and 'perverted' '70s to the '70s described by McEwan in 'Sweet tooth'...
BTW: I read this short stories collection in translation many years ago and I have almost no memory of that first reading
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2...

[Janelle · Rating 3 out of 5]

Seven short stories in this quick read, some feel unfinished or an interesting idea that could be expanded. Weirdos and creeps feature throughout. I thought the best was “Psychopolis”.

[Kuszma · Rating 4 out of 5]

McEwan piszok jól ír piszkosul kényelmetleneket. Nem is puszta kényelmetlenség ez, nem csak babrálás a komfortzónánkkal, hanem néha konkrétan sanda szándékból elkövetett zaklatás. Egy olyan elbeszélés, mint mondjuk az "Egy kis hazai", tudatosan annak határait piszkálja, amit a közmegegyezés - vagy mondjam talán úgy: az általános emberi jóízlés? - szerint az irodalomnak azért mégsem kéne témául választania. Vagy ha mégis megteszi, úgy véljük, kommentálnia kéne, reflektálnia rá, érzékeltetni, tisztában van a súlyával. De McEwan csak ábrázol. Így belegondolva, talán nem is maga a téma a legriasztóbb. Hanem hogy az író képes ábrázolni, csak úgy, mintha nem is lenne róla véleménye.

A kötet utolsó két elbeszélése egy mesegyűjteményből érkezett vendégszerepelni. Bennük is tetten érhető az, ami a kötet novelláit nyugtalanítóvá teszi. Csak itt épp egy gyermeket látunk, ahogy titkos vágyai valami riasztóba fordulnak át. A végkifejletben azért feloldozást nyerünk, de valahogy az volt az érzésem, ez a történetek belső logikája ellenére történik. Valahol (nem is olyan) mélyen diszkomfort mesék ezek, ahogy a kötet novellái is diszkomfort történetek.

Amúgy a "Geometria" című elbeszélés az egyik legpazarabb kispróza, amit az utóbbi időben olvastam. Ha a vége nem olyan kiszámítható, használnám vele kapcsolatban a "tökéletes" jelzőt is.

[Stephanie Sun · Rating 4 out of 5]

“Eaters of asparagus know the scent it lends the urine. It has been described as reptilian, or as a repulsive inorganic stench, or again, as a sharp, womanly odor... exciting. Certainly it suggests sexual activity of some kind between exotic creatures, perhaps from a distant land, another planet. This unworldly smell is a matter for poets and I challenge them to face their responsibilities.”

I gather from other reviews here that First Love, Last Rites is the better collection of early Ian McEwan stories, but I liked this better than most of his novels. I recommend going in with low expectations and then keeping an open mind. Every other story ends weakly: not a great batting average for a 150-page collection of seven stories. Some of the would-be twists will make you roll your eyes.

But McEwan’s prose is as pungent and irresistibly precise as post-asparagus piss, and, with some exceptions, he chooses his material wisely: a divorced father overthinking his teenage daughter’s birthday gift, a painstakingly self-aware ape in love with a self-absorbed celebrity author, an elaborately delusional financier. The final story, “Psychopolis,” about a British man in Los Angeles is especially strong.

I even liked it slightly better than Angela Carter’s The Bloody Chamber and Other Stories, whose influence glares throughout like a floodlight in the whimsical first person voice that many of the stories share, the attempts at a knowingly Grimmsian surrealism, and the half-baked endings.

[Brendan Monroe · Rating 1 out of 5]

This one really should have been left in the laundry basket.

Don’t get me wrong, I love Ian McEwan. “Atonement” is one of my favorite books. But this… that it’s even by the same writer as that or other excellent books like “Amsterdam” is baffling.

I picked this up while visiting Dublin. There’s a fantastic used bookstore there, maybe the best I’ve ever been to, called “Chapters”. While spending my vacation browsing its shelves my eyes fell on this collection of short stories.

I was surprised that I’d never heard of this collection before – though no longer – and based on the title and the cover, which features a nude woman lying, appropriately enough, between the sheets, I added it to the already meter high stack I was lugging around.

This was supposed to be a sexy read and that alone made me bypass many of the other no doubt excellent books I brought back from that excellent bookstore to read this one first.

Let’s hope I have better luck with the rest.

Nothing about this is sexy at all. It’s a collection of mostly kinky stories that utterly fail to intrigue. I'm thinking of the father in the title story and his incestuous feelings for his young daughter and his regularly gross sexual feelings for her similarly young friend. But it wasn’t the content of the story that turned me off, but the execution.

Nothing here is especially well-written. It’s all very early McEwan and these feel like pages that should have stayed in the wastebasket.

Am I alone in feeling that way?

Disenchanted as I was at numerous occasions, I turned this book around to read, with some amazement, the gushing blurbs from the likes of the Los Angeles Times and other newspapers you’d recognize.

“Is all that praise about this book?” I wondered to myself. I find it more likely that such adulation came from reviews of McEwan’s greater body of work because here he was clearly having an off day.

Reading, then skimming, “In Between the Sheets” confirms that some things really are better left unexposed.

[Ryan · Rating 4 out of 5]

'Pornography', the title story, and ‘Psychopolis' (especially the dialogue near the end) are the best. More technically assured than the first collection, and with more bite.

I never understand people who find McEwan's early work disgusting, 'shocking' etc.

I chain-read McEwan's first three books whilst lying in Stafford Hospital and found them infinitely preferable to the ward.

[Jenny (Reading Envy) · Rating 3 out of 5]

I heard about this on the Books on the Nightstand podcast. Each of these stories pushes some kind of assumption, sex-related. I knew it was early McEwan so I was hoping for something more along the lines of The Comfort of Strangers but these are more focused on the concept in each story than the relationship between the characters. Quick read.

[Caleb Liu · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very very unsettling. McEwan manages to look at sex in a thoroughly unnerving and disturbing way while maintaining the veneer of normalcy in the stories. Just too weird for me.

[Bren fall in love with the sea.]

DNF. I read my purple, scented novel and adored it.

So I went back and found this and thought I would love it, but I wound up DNFing rather quickly.

I really couldn’t make heads or tails of what I was reading, and it was awfully seedy? The stories were .

I honestly couldn’t tell at times with one story ended in the next began. Anyway, this was not for me.

[George · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars. A collection of seven engaging, some odd, short stories, (134 pages). I particularly liked ‘Psychopolis’ and ‘Pornography’. In ‘Psychopolis’, a British traveller is becoming bored with living, travelling across America. He attends an unusual dinner party where the dialogue is very well written. There is an interesting conversation about religion from the female perspective.

In ‘Pornography’ a two timing young man finds himself in a spot of bother when his two woman friends join forces against him.

‘Dead as they come’ is an odd memorable story where a very wealthy man who has been married three times, takes a fancy to a fashion mannequin.

This book was first published in 1978.

[ThatBookish_deviant · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.25/5

In Between The Sheets consists of seven somewhat spicy short stories. The best of the lot are Pornography and Tell Us They Come. There isn’t a bad story among the bunch because it is Ian McEwan after all! I would suggest reading his other short story book instead, First Love Last Rites, as it’s by far a superior collection of his work.

[Ilana (illi69) · Rating 3 out of 5]

Really hesitating on the star rating. It’s a firm 3.5, but do I round up or down needs reflection. Have a review three-quarters finished on the way!

[Lewis Woolston · Rating 1 out of 5]

I've read quite a few of Ian McEwan's novels and enjoyed most of them, a couple of them i thought were legit masterpieces and future classics. So, i thought, his short stories ought to be quality as well, let's give them a try.
Bad move.
These are awful, written like a first year creative writing student trying to be edgy for the sake of being edgy. I don't know what was going on with Mc Ewan when he wrote these but i find it hard to believe that this is the same author who wrote "Lessons" and "Atonement" as these are not even in the same league.

[Lisa - OwlBeSatReading · Rating 4 out of 5]

McEwan writes so the strange appears normal. The twisted seem acceptable. A dark minded author whose books have an artistic and unique flair.

This collection was a real treat for me, a taster. Some stories were dark. Others were odd, weird and bizarre. They all drew me in for one reason or another.

I shall be reading more from this author.

[Rafa · Rating 4 out of 5]

Es fresco y divertido. Creo que me gustan más sus primeros libros que los actuales.

[Jasminka · Rating 3 out of 5]

Meni osrednje, iako su neke priče bile bolje od drugih.

"Biblija je knjiga koju su pisali muškarci, namenjena je muškarcima i prikazuje jednog izrazito muškog Boga, koji čak i izgleda kao muškarac pošto je čoveka stvorio po sopstvenom liku. Meni to zvuči dosta sumnjivo, tipična muška fantazija...”

„žene u hrišćanstvu prolaze dosta loše. Preko Prvobitnog greha, njima se pripisuje odgovornost za sve na svetu počev od Rajskog vrta. Žene su slabe, nečiste, osuđene da rađaju decu u mukama jer im je to kazna za Evina posrnuća, one su zavodnice koje odvlače muške misli od Boga; ispada kao da žene snose veću odgovornost za muška seksualna osećanja nego sami muškarci! Što kaže Simon de Bovoar, žene su uvek ’drugi’, prava radnja odvija se između nekog muškarca na nebu i ovih tu muškaraca na zemlji. Žene zapravo i postoje samo kao neka vrsta božanske naknadne misli, stvorene od prekobrojnog rebarceta da bi muškarcima pravile društvo i peglale njihove košulje, a najbolje su hrišćanke kad se ne uprljaju seksom, kad ostanu čedne, pa ako im se posreći da u isto vreme dobiju i dete, onda se mogu meriti sa ženskim idealom Hrišćanske crkve - Devicom Marijom.”

[Jelena · Rating 3 out of 5]

I ukratko o utiscima: kako su se price redjale, tako mi je odusevljenje opadalo.
Geometrija tijela i Pornografija su mi super, Psihopolis - razocarenje :/

[Lannie · Rating 3 out of 5]

I only read the titular story in this collection, In Between the Sheets.

Very well written, of course. An odd sort of story, grazing taboos without dipping into trashiness.

The only thing I think I can add to the conversation is the lack of discussion of the dwarf character, Charmian. A lot of the focus is on the father, and what he's thinking and going through mentally. It seems he's awakening to the fact that he might be attracted in some way to his own daughter, or younger people in general (something which may have caused his divorce). This taboo is, of course, a big part of this story. But, because of this, I think it's easy to ignore the big blinking red lights of Charmian.

Charmian is, very likely, an adult woman. For my money, she's worse than the father, because she's already interacting with the daughter.

The hints are there in abundance. She talks with clean, flat, well-worded sentences. She has already read a book of his, on evolution (something I doubt a 14-year-old would do). She guides the daughter through the process of riding in a taxi. She is small, but has the weight of an adult. She is described as having a double chin and a wispy gray mustache. She is described as having the wisdom of an old woman. It's all there. Due to either confusion, prejudice, or willful ignorance, it seems that neither the father nor mother have connected the dots—their daughter's tiny school friend is actually an older girlfriend.

This sheds different light on the story than just "father having bad budding thoughts towards daughter." The daughter is now this innocent thing that is being attacked on all sides. She is between two people who are trying to get her between the sheets.

There's more nuance in here than that, though, whether intended or otherwise. It's definitely worth a couple reads and a bit of thoughtful analysis, but not worth more than three stars.

[Sebastian Lönnlöv · Rating 3 out of 5]

En enormt bra titelnovell, två bra, tre halvdåliga och en meningslös. Tyckte väldigt mycket bättre om "First Love, Last Rites".

[Snežana · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ijan Makjuan ima zavidno privlačan stil pisanja, čak iako su njegove teme morbidne. Ova zbirka priča jeste skup priča čiji su likovi seksualno devijantni, i iako ne čine užasna dela, itekako je prisutno razmišljanje o njima, zato što su pre svega nezadovoljni. Odnosi među ljudima su dovedeni do ekstrema odvratnosti, kako bi se došlo da određene poente, a ta poenta jeste da su ljudi takvi kakvi jesu i čak iako su deo određene zajednice ili para, nikakva romantična osećanja neće promeniti njihovu esenciju kao pojedinca, koja svakako može biti puna vrlina, ali se u ovim pričama uočava samo njihova falična strana. Pored toga što je u pričama prisutna ta glavna poenta, Ijan sjajno iznosi na sasvim nasumičnim mestima i male zaključke koje primećuje o određenoj vrsti ljudi. Za kraj ću izanalizirati prvu priču malo detaljnije.

Geometrija tela

Radnja priče se razdvaja na dva toka koja se ne dešavaju u isto vreme - imamo sadašnji trenutak u kojem čovek čita dnevnike svog pradede i šta se njemu dešava, takođe je tu i njegova naracija dešavanja iz dnevnika pradede. Započnimo od analize dnevnika.
Sve u vezi života njegovog pradede je potkovano čudnom misterijom. On je sebe predstavlja kao matematičara iako nigde nije napredovao u toj oblasti, što se da protumačiti kao osobina filozofa i ljudi teoretičar koji se hvale time kako bi mogli nešto učiniti, samo da nije milion izgovora. Prosto ismevanje ideje potencijal. Jer se on ne računa, ako nije iznese na videlo u obliku akcija.
Druga stvar koja se primećuje kroz dnevnik jeste u stvari koliko je seksualno devijantna priča. Sam početak to nagoveštava sa kupovinom penisa kapetana. Takođe su zabeleženi “intelektualni” razgovori o pozama vođenja ljubavi, sve sa latinskim rečima, citatima stručnih ljudi i složenim fazama, sam stil implicirajući da se akademski razgovor ne bazira na njegovom samom izgledu i da nije jednostavno to to ako nema dubine ili odaje površnu sliku iste.
Treća stvar u vezi pradedinog života koja je zanimljiva i koju ostavljam za kraj zato što ima direktnu posledicu u sadašnjosti jeste teorija “ravni bez površine”. Njen prikaz i opis u priči je nadrealistički i kod čitaoca ostavlja jezu u samim kostima. Zašto?
Pa svaki mogući zakon se u vezi jedne stvari slaže. Nešto se ne može oroditi ni iz čega. Ništa je jednostavno ništa, dok se nešto svakako može transformirati, ali će uvek ostati njegov trag. Voda kad ispari pretvara se u paru. Čovek kad umre postaje prah. Taj zakon se može projektovati i na apstraktne pojmove, poput osećanja u ovakvom konkretnom primeru priče. Da li ona zaista mogu nestati? Ili ih možda u stvari nikada nije ni bilo, već je nama zavladala iluzija o njima?
Recimo da “ravan bez površine” implicira brak glavnih likova. Cela njihova priča je neretka u realnosti, bračni drugovi se na početku veoma vole, ali posle nekog vremena sve što od te ljubavi ostane jeste navika, ili čak i prezir (koji je u ovom slučaju veoma izražen)
Prividno, ovde postaju egocentični ljudi. Brinući samo o svojim željama i potrebama, ne ostavljaju ni ćošak u svom umu za potrebe onog drugoga. Ovde imamo par grotesknih scena prikazujuči njihov obostrani prezir koji kulminira u sceni gde žena razbija muževljevog pradede teglu sa penisom starim nekoliko vekova. Zaista nisam mislila da ću ikad napisati ovakvu rečenicu. Praveći malu digresija od poente, moram pomenuti sa kojom sentimentalnošću muž govori o toj stvari praveći veliku filozofiju ni od čega, što opet predstavlja vid zavaravanja ljudi u vezi definisanja nečega i ničega.
Tokom cele priče se pitamo da li postoji nečega ili ničega između njih, čak ni sam kraj to ne otkriva.
Žena nestaje, i samo se njen glas čuje u pozadini. To se može protumačiti kao jedan od načina na koje pojedinci utiču jedni na druge - ili se unište ili stope. U ovom slučaju se žena izgubila u tom braku. Najočevidniji način tumačenja jeste iz feminističkog ugla jer je sve vreme muž kinji, maltretira i ona jelte na kraju gubi sebe u tom braku. Ali ja namerno hoću da idem malo dalje. Sa obzirom na prisustvo ravni bez površi, fizičkih zakona i njihove priče, pitam se zbog njenih odjeka “Da li je između njih postojala ljubav koja se pretvorila u prah ili je oduvek postojala samo iluzija? “