Compared to Camus' The Fall but also bringing to mind Nabokov, I only recently discovered Hawkes through New Directions. For style alone it makes this one of the best reads in a while. The plot isn't of great consequence but I think it'll take a second read to try to understand the motivation of the suicidal/homicidal narrator. It didn't bother me he wasn't sympathetic- I'm quite at home with detestable narrators. ( )

Un hombre sin nombre conduce a gran velocidad un elegante coche por las carreteras del sur de Francia. Le acompañan su mejor amigo y su hija. No se trata de un viaje de placer. Y su mejor amigo resulta no ser en realidad su mejor amigo. Se dirigen hacia un destino fatal, planificado con meticulosidad psicótica por el conductor. A lo largo del trayecto, éste exhibe su habilidad al volante y dedica a los aterrorizados acompañantes un monólogo donde expone su personal visión de la existencia. Para el conductor, la misión en que se hallan embarcados, que finalizará con la muerte de los tres, es la máxima expresión del arte poético.
Con esta novela, publicada en 1976, John Hawkes cerró la denominada «Trilogía del sexo». Para su conclusión no sólo reservó todo un despliegue de humor negro, neurosis, sexualidad y violencia, sino que, a través de las opiniones del conductor, nos hizo partícipes de sus ideas acerca de cómo debe ser la literatura y de la relación de ésta con la vida.

What is the meaning of travesty? A travesty is literary or artistic composition so inferior in quality as to be merely a grotesque imitation of its model. John Hawkes' novella is a poetic travesty. The driver of a luxury sports car, an upper class intellectual, has decided to commit the ultimate poetic act. Is it because his wife is his poet best friend's mistress? Is it because his daughter is mistress to the same poet? You will have to join the threesome on this ride to death to determine the meaning of the driver's choice for yourself. I could feel the wind in my hair on this ride through a rainy night in southern France. Do you dare? ( )

Three people in a car hurtling through rural France. Only the driver speaks. Read it to find out what he says. ( )

I was compelled to read this despite the fact that I felt uninterested. Hawkes will do that to you---make it impossible for you to stop. You have to know....what is the cause of the dread that he he brings to life with his words. Maybe only if you are a voyeur of doom? In any case, the story, told entirely as a monologue, is okay. The writing is brilliant. ( )