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This is a collection of 5 short stories by this existential author in the late 1940s. I think the book has also gone under the title "Intimacy", being the first story. Being short I'll not give too much detail but are as follows: Intimacy: Lulu is married to Henri and her friend Rirette thinks she should leave him. Why might she stay? The Wall: Pablo, a Spanish revolutionary has been caught and threatened with firing squad. His dialogue with his fellow prisoners makes you wonder if he could betray his leader. A quote "several hours or several years of waiting is all the same when you have lost the illusion of being eternal" The Room: Eve is married to Pierre who has a degenerative mental illness; her parents try to get her to leave him before he gets too bad. Erostratus: (the famous story) Paul Hilbert gets a gun and thinks he can make his mark (of infamy) by a random set of killings (genuinely like the Greek Herostratos who burned down one of the 7 ancient wonders of the world for the same reason). Will he succeed and end in killing himself? A quote "Everywhere wrinkles, horrible wrinkles of fear and hatred, folds, holes in the flesh as though a beast with claws had walked over their faces. And those eyes, always those black, depthless eyes - like mine" The Childhood of a leader: story of Lucian Fleurier from boy to teenager to radical. He has a gay affair and falls in love. I don't usually like short stories because they always seem underdeveloped, but these are somewhat different. Sartre has applied his existential depth to perhaps a basic theme and produced a worthy series of windows on life. The Wall and Erostratus are easily the best stories with an exciting ending. The Childhood is too long but doubtless traces a psycho-standard pattern of human development. I still prefer all his novels but a good read nonetheless.

2022-10-21 05:25