Occurrence in the Immediate Unreality

Max Blecher’s work of autobiographical fiction employs poetic prose to explore his ideas of self-identity and the body. An intimate and frank account, Occurrence in the Immediate Unreality is unsettling as it examines and lays bare what Blecher terms ‘the crisis of unreality’ in relation to the human condition and details the ‘bizarre adventure of being a man’ from the perspective of Blecher who never fully experienced manhood owing to his contraction of tuberculosis in 1928. What is offered to the reader then, is Blecher’s experiences of being a physically infirm adolescent experiencing the simultaneous struggle of social isolation and sexual awakening.