i am copying this from
an old thread i made a long time ago. at the time it raised a quite interesting discussion, but no-one was able to identify my book. since there are a lot of new members, you never know, perhaps someone has a new idea.
ZE FORGOTTEN BOOK :
a long time ago i got a book at the library which was really brilliant, and i would love to read it again but i have since forgotten the title and the author (i should make a list of everything i read...). i tried looking for it at the library again (at the time i think i would have recognized it if i had seen it) but it wasn't there. maybe checked out, maybe weeded out of the collection...
the theme was solipsism ; the main characters were a family, if i recall correctly, and during the course of the story their home (the scene of the action) began to physically crack and fall apart as the dreamer (the father ?) either realized that they were all products of his own mind or woke up (or possibly neither, and it was the odd events which made the other family members suspect...), and the other family members berated him for causing such havoc. the details are very vague in my memory. i mainly remember really liking it.
i *think* it was an italian author, but it was not Pirandello (i'm 99% sure). I'm pretty sure it was a novel, but it may have been a play, definitely in the absurdist theater style. it was not by ionesco either (but it could have been ; it would make a brilliant companion piece to "Rhinoceros"). it might have been written around the 1950's or 1960's (this is a guess).
in french, i think the title might have been something like
"la fêlure" (but not exactly that, or i would have found it already... maybe a synonym), so it might be called something like "the fracture" or "the split" in english.
if anyone has any ideas i would really love to find this book again... i've asked around but it seems to be a bit obscure, no-one i've talked to has any ideas. maybe i dreamed the whole thing...
i'm hoping i'll get lucky and it will be the most favorite book ever of someone who comes on this forum every day... if i ever find it again i'll make another post recommending it, and you can all read it too.
