This
is a unique story. I have never read such an unusual story. It is unusual
because the writer does not tell the name of the protagonist until the last
page. In the end, the reader knows that he is not a human being. It’s “the
living itch, man-shaped, Robert T. Waldron, thinking incoherently.”
The
theme of the story is itch, which dominates almost all the story except the
human-voice-like sound of urine. The itch probably signifies something
irritable, something unpleasant in the world, which the skin-doctor mentions
when she was asked what her itch was. The relation between he and Ana is not
clear. Maybe they love each other, but it is not mentioned clearly.
The whole story is not
direct, nor clear. It does not develop like it has a plot. The writer “develops”
the story at random. Sometimes he presents the scenes of the couple—he and Ana,
sometimes the scenes of he and the skin-doctor, and other times about the urine
sound, Zaum. It is “incoherent.”
The writer is successful
in making the reader irritated and itchy because of little plot and a lot of
indirectness. The ending is an unexpected surprise.
There should be some
philosophy behind the story, but it is obscure.
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