The life and opinions of Zacharias Lichter
By: Matei Calinescu ; translated from the Romanian by Adriana Calinescu and Breon Mitchell ; introduction by Norman Manea
Contributors: Calinescu, Adriana, 1941- translator; Mitchell, Breon, translator
Series: New York Review Books classics; New York Review Books classics
Publisher: New York Review Books
Published: 2018
Language: eng
Number of pages: 145
ISBN-13: 9781681371955
Subjects: Romanians; Fiction
Work titles: Viața și opiniile lui Zacharias Lichter
Description: "Ugly, unkempt, a haunter of low dives who begs for a living and lives on the street, Zacharias Lichter exists for all that in a state of unlikely rapture. After being engulfed by a divine flame as a teenager, Zacharias has devoted his days to doing nothing at all--apart, that is, from composing the odd poem he immediately throws away and consorting with a handful of stray friends: Poldy, for example, the catatonic alcoholic whom Zacharias considers a brilliant philosopher, or another more vigorous barfly whose prolific output of pornographic verses has won him the nickname of the Poet. Zacharias is a kind of holy fool, but one whose foolery calls in question both social convention and conventional wisdom. He is as much skeptic as ecstatic, affirming above all the truth of perplexity. This of course is what makes him a permanent outrage to the powers that be, be they reactionary or revolutionary, and to all other self-appointed champions of morality who are blind to their own absurdity. The only thing that scares Zacharias is that all-purpose servant of conformity, the psychiatrist"--Amazon.com.