6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Not for the faint of heart--dark juicies, May 28, 2004
This review is from: The Thief and Other Stories (Hardcover)
After reading these singularly unpleasant but delicious descents into madness (particularly the title tale, "The Thief", which chronicles in a surreal manner a vicious madman's obsession with the Mona Lisa as the personification of Satan), I realized that Heym's work would be neither easy to find nor readily available at mainstream bookstores. In the tradition of Maupassant, Schopenhauer and Trakl, Heym employs dark poetic atmosphere to reveal the futility of human effort and obsesses over life's horrors (in an entertaining, exhilarating way.) Hallucinatory imagery abounds as Heym's wretched, often deranged narrators commit atrocities, believing themselves to be in another state of being then they actually are (case in point: "The Madman"). I'm thinking that Heym's poetry must be in the vein of Brennan, Leopardi, and the more bleak parts of Dante. These tales, however, are not to be taken in large doses for most. Definitely recommended if you're looking for something discouraging, odd and exciting all at once.
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