Hats off to the random bookseller in Dubai who stuck this book on the Staff Picks shelf because Ilarie Voronca’s The Confession of a False Soul is one of the most delightfully bizarre books I’ve read in a long while. It’s the story of a lowly finance clerk who, having made little of his life, decides his soul is damaged and in need of replacement. Lucky for him, it’s wartime, and plenty of fresh souls - young, idealistic, valiant - are there for the taking. So off he goes to the clinic for a transplant. After a little haggling (a good soul’s expensive!), he decides on a young soldier who recently fell on the battlefield.
Voronca writes with such confidence that none of this seems remotely preposterous. It’s fun and funny, but also packs a philosophical punch. The clerk and his new soul duke it out over some great existential issues (mostly surrounding what constitutes a life meaningfully lived), their repartee witty and profound. Throw in a sweet love story and some pretty weird tangents – there’s a whole chapter on the greatness of garlic – and you’re left with an obscure but genuine little masterpiece of absurdist fiction.
The Confession of a False Soul by Ilarie Voronca (Tr. Sue Boswell)
Snuggly Books, 2021 (Orig. 1942)
91 pages