Kaganof – Hectic!
“One of the main problems of the picaresque is what to do with the hero, who is moving from episode to episode. Should he be a picaro, that is, a more or less mild rogue, who comes to a good or bad end, thus exemplifying various kinds of achievement or failure? Should he be put through an education sentimentale, or should he remain a mere cypher linking the satirical sketches together? Kaganof adopts the most poetic solution by giving his anti-hero Cool Red an incorruptible purity, which represents the hope for good that springs eternal in every breast. The character becomes a symbol of the soul voyaging naively through the welter of the Absurd world, and the various forms of evil fall into a pattern in relationship to his central innocence. Cool Red, undergoes some curious changes. At first, he is an average no-go-getter with moments of boyish decency; later he turns into a more deliberate rogue; but then – just when he is at his most roguish – the book ends. Kaganof leaves us screaming for more. Hectic! cries out for a sequel.”
cècile lomer
the african book publishing record
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