The Enormity of the Tragedy

At once a dirty joke and a highbrow novel, The Enormity of the Tragedy tells the story of Ramon-Maria, a balding, trumpet-playing widower who lives with his angry stepdaughter Anna-Francesca in a house full of books left over from his failed publishing concern. One night, having persuaded the lovely leading lady of a burlesque show to take him home, Ramon-Maria finds himself too drunk and nervous to make love to her. But the next morning he finds that his body has compensated for its earlier lethargy with an indefatigable erection. Meanwhile Anna-Francesca is busy stealing Ramon-Maria's money and discovering the first pangs of adolescent love. As Ramon-Maria struggles with his condition, Anna-Francesca's experience with men and hatred of Ramon-Maria grow concurrently until she finally resolves to kill her stepfather and live in peace at last. A bald resume of the plot doesn't do justice to a novel that has been hailed across Europe as a masterpiece of postmodern literary parody, at once funny, endearing and of scaring intelligence.