Lobster

by Guillaume Lecasble, Polly McLean (Translator)

Overview

Aboard the Titanic, Lobster watches Angelina devour his father, before being plucked out of the aquarium himself. Just as he is put in the boiling pot, the ship hits the iceberg and the pot is thrown to the floor. Lobster survives, with some changes: he finds himself sexually attracted not only to a human, but to the very human who ate his father. He gives her one life-changing orgasm before their tragic separation, following an ugly incident in one of the lifeboats.

"A fable of crustacean love. Our hero is a lobster aboard the Titanic. From his tank, he watches his father being eaten by a pretty girl. Then the boat founders and Lobster escapes. Aboard the sinking ship, Angelina, the girl who ate his dad, knows a brief but shattering moment of physical love with Lobster. Then they are separated. They pine for each other. Angelina tries having sex with another lobster, with disastrous results. Death smells of bay leaves." — Sam Leith in The Daily Telegraph

"In terms of abusing the natural world, Lobster by Guillaume Lecasble is in a league of its own. The surrealist tale of a lobster on board the Titanic which finds itself helplessly attracted to a human female, the book hinges on the life-changing orgasm the fishy amorist gives Angelina as the boat sinks in the icy water." — Tom Fleming in The Literary Review

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781915568236
Publisher:	Dedalus, Limited
Publication date:	02/20/2024
Series:	Dedalus Europe
Edition description:	Revised
Pages:	112
Product dimensions:	5.12(w) x 7.75(h) x 0.50(d)

About the Author

Guillaume Lecasble was born in 1954. He started painting at the age of 19 and had a first solo exhibition eleven years later. From his art work – and particularly the portrait of a chorus of monks - he became inspired to experiment with new approaches to film making. Various short films yielded a pair of characters (bonhomme & bonfemme) who then reincarnated themselves in a series of highly praised books for children. Painting continues to inspire and accompany his written and cinematographic work. Lobster, his first novel, was published to critical acclaim in France in 2003.

Polly McLean grew up in Paris and Oxford. She is a freelance translator whose latest credits include a novel by Yasmina Traboulsi for Blackamber Books, and a history of that well-known liberal agreement, the Entente Cordiale. She is particularly interested in translating erotic literature.

Editorial Reviews

"With its fortuitous encounters and near misses, its moments of sweet affection and suicidal despair, Lecasble's tale manages to be both tender and appalling." — Publishers Weekly

"A brief, bizarre, boiling broth of surrealism, romantic fatalism and slapstick. Not for the squeamish." — Kirkus Reviews

"Agreeably unsettling, and avoiding the obvious turns, twists, and resolutions, Lobster has something of the classical fairy tale to it - the kind which did without the easy or heavy-handed moralizing. It is, however, an adult tale, in every sense, a mature kind of fiction and a clever piece of invention - the kind of novel we see far too little of." — M.A.Orthofer in The Complete Review

From the Publisher

An erotic shellfish fable. Despite an opening reminiscent of Finding Nemo-"Lobster didn't want to go. He put up a fight"-Lecasble's debut, published in France in 2003, requires a rating considerably more stringent than PG. Offering a sex scene between a crustacean and a female human, this story gives voice to wild, sometimes horrific expressions of imaginative energy and anthropomorphic fantasy. Captured by fishermen, our eponymous hero finds himself on board the Titanic in a glass tank from which he watches his parents taken away, murdered and served to diners. His father is consumed with particular relish by a depressed, opium-addicted beauty named Angelina. Heading for a similar fate, Lobster is saved from death by the iceberg collision. Free, he finds Angelina and experiences twin emotions: vengeance and lust. After giving her her first orgasm, the two escape to a lifeboat but are separated. Angelina reappears in New York, where her quest to find Lobster, involving experiments with other crustaceans, results in gruesome physical impairment. Lobster, meanwhile, enjoys an underwater orgy that leads to a mammoth lobster harvest. Jules, the fisherman who hauls in the miracle catch, senses that Lobster is special, and the two become companions. Jules is heading to Paris to buy a tattoo parlor, and during the sea voyage encounters Angelina, who has in mind the same destination. When she visits the parlor for a lobster tattoo, Lobster, in the next room, recognizes her and commits a desperate act. A brief, bizarre, boiling broth of surrealism, romantic fatalism and slapstick. Not for the squeamish.

Kirkus Reviews