A Night of Serious Drinking

A Night of Serious Drinking
by Rene Daumal
read: circa 2009

This is a weird book.  It's not even really a novel so much as a thought experiment.  The first third of the book begins as you might imagine a book called A Night of Serious Drinking would, with a bar full of heavy drinkers, and the narrative lucidity decays as the evening wears on and talk turns more philosophical.  The second third is a journey to an alternate universe ostensibly still within the tavern.  The final part begins with a man waking up in a spare room who comes to operate a larger machine that simulates the human body waking up.

The second third is probably the most interesting piece.  The inhabitants of the parallel universe in the   the tavern bear strong resemblance to those in our world, just taken one absurd step further.  Daumal skewers military leaders, doctors, scientists, and artists alike.  The equivalent of poets in this world are folks who try to produce completely random words utterly devoid of meaning or thought.  Architects strive to create forms of pure beauty that no one could possibly live in.  The section goes on for a while, but at times it's so clever it's laugh-out-loud funny.

A Night of Serious Drinking is an unusual novel, but it took me places few books have taken me, so on that basis I can recommend it.  (Yes, the price is ridiculous.  Don't buy it.)