The Pigeon (Paperback, Reprint)

Suskind, German author of the vivid, stylish, but overrated Perfume (1986), a fable of human stink, now offers a more conventional, clinical serving of dour existentialism: one day in the stultifying life of Paris bank-guard Jonathan Noel - whose narrow, rigidly controlled existence is thrown into fearsome chaos by a tiny invasion from nature. Now past 50, Noel lost his parents to a concentration camp in 1942 - and has ever since, only half-understandably, sought "monotone serenity and uneventfulness." So, after being abandoned by his new wife in 1954, Noel carved out his niche: the impassive bank job; utterly regular, utterly solitary habits; a tiny seventh-floor-walkup room, being purchased outright on an installment plan after 30 years of renting ("the only thing that had proved dependable in his life"). But then, "in August 1984, on a Friday morning," Noel opens his door, sees a pigeon ("the epitome of chaos and anarchy") crouching right there in the hall - and becomes unhinged: "your whole life has been a lie, you've made a mess of it, because it's been upended by a pigeon, you must kill it, but you can't kill it. . ." Terrified of further encounters with the pigeon, Noel flees with a packed suitcase through green spatterings of bird-dirt in the hall, "certain he would never be able to return." For the first time he is absent-minded at the bank; he's filled with "raging self-hatred," especially after tearing a hole in his trousers; he imagines himself becoming like the local bum he sees "shitting in the street." Amid echoes of Perfume, he is soon railing against the hot, stinking city and everything in it - till, after a near-suicidal night in a flophouse, the status quo is quietly restored. Possibly symbolic (Noel=Christ?), probably readable as a man-vs.-universe fable, marginally amusing in a cruel way - and grimly impressive, at taut novella-length, as a cool close-up study of severe obsessive-compulsive neurosis. (Kirkus Reviews)

Set in Paris and attracting comparisons with Franz Kafka and Edgar Allan Poe, The Pigeon is Patrick Suskind's tense, disturbing follow-up to the bestselling Perfume. The novella tells the story of a day in the meticulously ordered life of bank security guard Jonathan Noel, who has been hiding from life since his wife left him for her Tunisian lover. When Jonathan opens his front door on a day he believes will be just like any other, he encounters not the desired empty hallway but an unwelcome, diabolical intruder . . .

General

Imprint:	Penguin Books
Country of origin:	United Kingdom
Release date:	June 1989
First published:	June 1989
Authors:	Patrick Suskind
Dimensions:	198 x 129 x 7mm (L x W x T)
Format:	Paperback - B-format
Pages:	77
Edition:	Reprint
ISBN-13:	978-0-14-010583-4
Languages:	English
Subtitles:	German
Categories:	Books > Fiction > General & literary fiction > Modern fiction
LSN:	0-14-010583-2
Barcode:	9780140105834

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