Bathroom reading. Too light for my taste. =(

The moral is there is no moral.
The point is there is no point.
The first section ends with "but here the event is entirely covered in fog and of what happened further absolutely nothing is known."
Theater of the absurd? If so Gogol anticipates "The Killers" by 100 years.
I wonder if the protagonist is the narrator rather than either of the lead characters.

Part two ends with the same words as part one. I think this story is starting to make sense in a weird way.

The translator uses the English word "absurd" several times--is she trying to tell us something?

There are several quick but effective character sketches in this part. Gogol is good at quickly getting to the "meaning" of a character. He seems to introduce characters just to be able to describe their foibles. I guess we can universalize from them to comments about people in general.

Part three and the story ends.

I am going to stay with my initial impression that the narrator is the protagonist in this story. Even though it has a dream-like quality. A little "Alice in Wonderland" feel about it.

All of the significant characters make remarks that seem to be appropriate in context but are in fact absurd (that word again) upon further reflection.

This is probably one of the more enjoyable short stories I've read recently. Completely ridiculous, but good fun.

GaryG48 wrote:Part three and the story ends.

I am going to stay with my initial impression that the narrator is the protagonist in this story. Even though it has a dream-like quality. A little "Alice in Wonderland" feel about it.

All of the significant characters make remarks that seem to be appropriate in context but are in fact absurd (that word again) upon further reflection.

I like the idea that the narrator is the protagonist. That makes sense in terms of the long bit at the end, in which the narrator lets the reader know what they should take away from the story. It almost reads more like a modern movie than a 19th century story.

The thing that struck me about this story was the amount of time the protagonist spent trying to deal with the bureaucracies in order to get his nose back. His actions were completely wrapped up within the local political and social sphere, which creates an even greater level of absurdity. Truly, though, what could one be expected to do this situation?

This book is hilarious! It is somewhat Seinfeldesque. Very fun reading.

I find Gogol to be like Kafka, but with a sense of sardonic humour.