Criticism > Contemporary Literary Criticism > Carrère, Emmanuel - Irving Malin (review date Spring 1989)

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Irving Malin (review date Spring 1989)

SOURCE: A review of The Mustache, in The Review of Contemporary Fiction, Vol. 9, No. 1, Spring, 1989, p. 256.

[Malin is an American critic and educator. In the following positive review of The Mustache, he remarks on some of the philosophical implications discussed in and raised by Carrère's novel.]

The hero of this deceptively simple, metaphysical novel [The Mustache] decides to remove his mustache, to transform his appearance. He is, after all, an adult who wants to become another person. He is tired; he wants some special change. He desires to create another physical—and spiritual—design. We are not really informed about his reasons for metamorphosis; we merely accept the desire as an ordinary longing—one we can easily understand.

But once he shapes himself differently, he—and his social relationships—falls apart. It appears that, once any design is...

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1. Introduction
2. Principal Works
3. Criticism
   1. Philip H. Solomon (review date May 1987)
   2. John Gross (review date 1 April 1988)
   3. Oliver Conant (review date 17 April 1988)
   4. John Updike (review date 4 July 1988)
   5. Irving Malin (review date Spring 1989)
   6. Publishers Weekly (review date 25 May 1990)
   7. Richard Eder (review date 22 July 1990)
   8. Scott Winnett (review date November 1990)
   9. R. R. K. (review date November-December 1990)
   10. Faren Miller (review date December 1990)
4. Copyright