“Unika Zürn writes in such a way that every sentence has equal weight. This is literature constructed without the drama of climaxes. This is mirror dramaturgy, dramaturgy of a closed circle.” Elfrieda Jelinek This thin book belongs on the bedside table of those who are worried about the night beyond reason, but who are strong enough to always return from a trip to its edge. However, it is worth remembering that Unika Zürn committed suicide at the age of 55, when failure to return occurs much less frequently than in the time of courageous frivolity. But the general law is not written to people with such names. It seems that this native of Berlin managed to ignore the war, working from the late 1930s at the UFA studio, getting married, leaving her husband with two small children and making money as a journalist. The first significant event in her life was a meeting with the surrealist Hans Bellmer in 1953, the last was her first experience with mescaline under the guidance of another surrealist, Henri Michaud. For about ten years, Unica has been Bellmer’s muse and model, co-author of his “automatic” poems, and unsuccessfully trying herself in literature. Her 60s are a severe hangover that will cover the “sticking out” youngsters only in the next decade. In 1970, another attack threw Unica from the window of her Paris apartment. In her smooth third-person fixations of delirium, she yearns for poetry and laments the poverty of language without much melodrama. Fassbinder dedicated the film adaptation of Nabokov’s “Despair” to her, along with Van Gogh and Artaud. Doomed - they gather in flocks. Pavel Sobolev