M. Blecher Books

Max Blecher began writing The Illuminated Burrow in 1937 and continued working on it until his death the following spring, but its full version was only published posthumously in 1971. It was the final "novel" in what can be called a trilogy that includes Adventures in Immediate Irreality and Scarred Hearts, and like those, it is composed in the vein of the Surrealist auto-fiction reminiscent of the work of André Breton and Michael Leiris. Set in the sanatoria where Blecher received treatment for spinal tuberculosis, the ostensible narrator is forced to confront the power and limitations of memory as he attempts to capture a dying man's last moments of life as they pass "like ash ... through a sieve," one final effort to rescue the beauty of days spent straddling the boundary between waking and dreaming, encountering the marvelous both inside and outside the sanatorium's walls, wandering deserted gardens, or experiencing transient yet affecting connections with fellow patients. As his physical powers decline and he is permanently confined to a bed, the narrator's life migrates to his inner consciousness, an "illuminated burrow" where reality is indistinguishable from fantasy, where the surreal and the mundane seamlessly fuse to enact the fears and fascinations elicited by the vibrant world that is gradually slipping away.

Transparent Body & Other Texts brings together Blecher's entire output of poetry and short prose, from the earliest texts published during his lifetime to those appearing for the first time only recently. They range from stories in the vein of his fantastical, hallucinatory longer work to aphorisms, reportage, and notebook fragments. The volume also includes a selection of his correspondence with such major figures of Romanian interwar modernism as Geo Bogza, Ilarie Voronca, and Saşa Pană to give a fuller picture of Blecher's engagement with the avant-garde and literary life even as his health was progressively deteriorating over the course of the 1930s.

"Scarred Hearts is a masterpiece. . . . It is a book to live with, to read again and again, as only great literature demands us to."—Paul Bailey "Elegant and powerful."—Financial Times "It is a matter for rejoicing that this small masterpiece should survive to delight readers of another century."—Daily Telegraph It is Paris in the 1930s and Emanuel, a Romanian student, finds himself dangerously ill with spinal tuberculosis. Sent to a sanatorium near the coast, he remains wrapped in a full body cast for a year. But while he endures his terrible cure, he unexpectedly falls in love.

O poiană, undeva în lume, într-o după-amiază de vară, când soarele arde – acestea sunt locurile în care personajul principal este bântuit de crize. Aici, protagonistul simte dureros că nu are nimic de făcut în această lume, decât să rătăcească prin parcuri și poieni sălbatice. Această rătăcire îi sfâșie, în cele din urmă, inima. Vagabondajul tânărului protagonist reflectă o căutare interioară: suferințele percepției în căutarea realității și a sinelui în lucruri, locuri și persoane. Cu cât se apropie mai obsesiv de ele, cu atât devine mai ireal, în timp ce lumea strălucește mai intens și mai rece. Romanul de dezvoltare apărut în 1936, scris de autorul evreu M. Blecher, este considerat un reper al modernității central-europene. Reprezentarea sa a irealității și a evenimentelor interioare fantastice îl leagă de autori precum Miloš Crnjanski, Géza Csáth, Bruno Schulz, Franz Kafka și Robert Walser. Herta Müller descrie opera ca fiind marcată de o adevărata apăsătoare, care nu a avut nicio șansă de supraviețuire în decadelor de dictatură, deși a fost apreciată de Eugène Ionesco.

Die Gedichte von Max Blecher bewegen sich zwischen Symbolismus und Surrealismus und zielen darauf ab, den konservativen Leser zu irritieren. Trotz dieser Herausforderung bieten sie eine eindrucksvolle und fesselnde Lektüre, die den Leser in eine außergewöhnliche poetische Welt entführt.

Jedinečné existenciální prózy předválečného rumunského autora, který strávil život připoután na nemocniční lůžko a pro hloubku svého vidění života a smysl pro tragično bývá mnohdy srovnáván s Franzem Kafkou.