Travesty

Wonderfully written, brutal, crisp, not shrinking from cruelty, perversion, tender twists of psyche. An awful delight - read if not fragile.

"We are travelling as if inside a clock the shape of a bullet, seated as if stationary among tight springs and brilliant gems. And we have a full tank of gas, and tires half a month old. Do not ask me to slow down. It is impossible." -JH Hawkes book is a brilliant, chilling, and hypnotic look into the urgency of life itself. In creating a situation of imminent death he deftly manuevers the reader into an assessment of our own reasons for living. A truly beautiful narrative, and probably the most easily accessible of Hawkes works.

This slim novel covers some of the same ground as J.G. Ballard's "Crash," but focuses less on the medical/scientific/technological aspects of auto accident deaths and more on the psychological depths of a man who plans to take his friend and daughter to their deaths in a car wreck. Although an American writer, Hawkes's prose often reads like an English translation of a French writer, such as Camus. (Hawkes found much greater fame in France than he ever did in the United States.) "Travesty," which is told from the point of view of a single, unstable narrator, is a brilliant exploration of sex, death, duality, and incestuous desire.

Travesty is a must read! The dialogue and thoughts of a "mad man" as he drives himself, his daughter and his daughter's/wife's lover to their deaths at top speeds in a car...fascinating! Once you start reading it, you cannot put the book down because of its fast paced momentum. Erotica, madness, and machinery all blended into one! If you liked the movie Crash, this is much much better.