Travesty [Paperback]

John Hawkes (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 17, 1976

Hawkes, Travesty. John Hawkes' most extreme vision of eroticism and comic terror.

Product Details

• Paperback: 132 pages
• Publisher: New Directions Publishing (January 17, 1976)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0811206408
• ISBN-13: 978-0811206402
• Product Dimensions: 8 x 5.1 x 0.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #170,843 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A brilliant anomaly in American fiction, December 1, 1999

By 

Adam P. Lounsbery (New York, NY) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Travesty (Paperback)

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.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Nightmare of the Dream, February 6, 2000

By 

Doug Guerra (Chicago, IL) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Travesty (Paperback)

"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.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Intriguing and wonderful!, May 11, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Travesty (Paperback)

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.