Like the man himself, this collection of essays on the work of Raymond Federman is multifold. He is viewed as a novelist, literary analyst, philosopher, translator, and Holocaust witness. The
first articles look at Federman as a Beckett scholar and as a literary critic. His ability to write fluently in French and English allowed him to translate himself, often with deliberate
changes in the text. While he espoused critical theory, he was difficult to pigeon hole. The debate about whether he was a postmodernist, metafictionist or, his favorite term, surfictionist, is
ongoing. His attitudes toward the writing of history may well have been founded in his experience in being saved from the concentration camps through a lucky chance when his mother managed to
hide him in a closet. She and the rest of the family died. This senseless salvation may have contributed to his sense of life as a grotesque irony. Editor Di Leo (English and Philosophy,
University of Houseton - Victoria) ends the volume with the hope that Federman will soon be appreciated for all his talents and studied in history, French and philosophy departments as well as
English. Annotation 穢2011 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)
