JOKO'S ANNIVERSARY

By ROLAND TOPOR (Orion Press; 1969)

     Maybe this obscure exercise in European absurdism doesn’t belong in a horror review page, but it does contain generous helpings of mutilation, cannibalism and demonic possession.  Not that this makes categorizing it any easier: Beginning like the most ludicrous Monty Python sketch ever and concluding with a Grand Guignol blow out worthy of De Sade, this tale is nothing if not unclassifiable. 

Whatever it is, it’s most definitely one of the craziest books I’ve ever read--and no surprise, as the late Roland Topor, a French painter and sometime novelist, was a close associate of cult figures like Alejandro Jodorowski and Fernando Arrabal.  Topor also co-scripted the bizarre sci fi cartoon FANTASTIC PLANET and provided the source novel for Roman Polanski’s whacked-out classic THE TENANT.  Few of his prose works have appeared in English, which is a shame, as based on JOKO’S ANNIVERSARY he clearly had much to offer.

     The story: Joko, a working stiff, is walking to work one morning when an old man jumps onto his back.  Joko manages to shake the geezer off, but quite a few other folks inexplicably want back rides.  Furthermore, upon arriving at his job he discovers his co-workers have entered the back-ride business themselves.  Joko decides to join in and is soon making a good income ferrying folks around.  Even better, one of those people is a hot chick who isn’t shy about exchanging sexual favors for back rides.  One day, however, Joko develops a strange infection that causes his fare of the day to stick to him.

     Whatever malady Joko has, it’s extremely virulent, as six more people become unwittingly stuck to his back.  All of Joko’s newfound companions, it seems, are rude, obnoxious, selfish and murderous individuals who act out their frustrations by complaining bitterly, brutalizing Joko and then dismembering his two sisters.  Joko’s parents retaliate with equal ferocity, leaving everyone dead but Joko.  It turns out, however, that his problems are only beginning, as now the souls of his companions are loose within him, and aren’t shy about using his body to act out all manner of depraved acts.

     Quite simply put, this is a VERY weird book, impossible to classify or even adequately explain.  At a scant 122 pages it’s more an extended outline than a proper novel, complete with names above dialogue blocks to denote the speaker (which reaches a comedic pitch in the final third, when Joko becomes possessed and so shares speaking credits). 

One can take JOKO’S ANNIVERSARY as a Kafkaesque exploration of the human condition or just a sick joke taken too far.  Either way, it’s a curiously memorable little book that’s outrageous and repellent in equal measure.  I’ll refrain from pondering Topor’s motives in writing it or its overriding “meaning”.  Suffice it to say that the author, in the manner of many fellow surrealists, seems determined at all costs to provoke a strong reaction, and in that he definitely succeeds.