THE GIANT DWARFS

by Gisela Elsner ‧ RELEASE DATE: May 1, 1965

Last summer at Salzburg, The Giant Dwarfs was awarded the Formentor First-Novel Prize; the next day Nathalie Sarraute's The Golden Fruits captured the Formentor Literary Prize. Some members of the international jury called Mme. Sarraute's work ""a classic""; others, including the Indian delegate, considered it ""unreadable."" A milder polarity of opinion is in store for Frau Elsner: no one in his right mind could call The Giant Dwarfs a classic; whether or not it is readable remains a question. Certainly Frau Elsner's technique is quite good: precise, cutting, monochromatically evocative, capable of various effects, from surrealist distortions to wild hilarity. Yet this reviewer, with the best will, found it difficult to keep turning the pages. For one thing, the theme is a modernist cliche; the bourgeois world, seen through the eyes of a child, remains continually in double-focus, humdrum and puritanical, brutal and sex-ridden. For another, the nagging parents, going through the ritual frustrations of domesticity, are too much like the non-characters Mme. Sarraute has made fashionable. And the obsession with objects (the father fuming over his unworkable collar button) or with information (the family doctor's spiel on a tapeworm), though funny enough arias in themselves, resemble too closely Ionesco's ""proliferation"" skits. Finally, this plotless work is annoyingly symbolic. Even the few memorable scenes (especially the child's forest outing where he ""discovers"" sex) do not energize the programmatic inertia.

Pub Date: May 1, 1965

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Grove

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 1965

Categories: FICTION