Joko's Anniversary  

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Joko's Anniversary (French: Joko fête son anniversaire) is both a theatrical play and a novel by Roland Topor, first published in 1969 by Buchet-Chastel. It has been described as a fable about loss of identity and a vicious satire on social conformity.

It won the Prix des Deux Magots in 1970 and was frequently staged all over Europe. It was translated in 1970 as Joko's Anniversary and published by Marion Boyars Publishers.

Plot

In a fantasy world, Joko, much like Gregor Samsa in Kafka's The Metamorphosis, is the breadwinner of a family. Joko works at the 'Reservoir' and his family consists of a mother, a father (who collects advertisements and is invalid) and two sisters.

One day, while going to work, Joko is jumped by a man who wants to piggyback Joko as if he were a taxi. This is his first encounter whith seven otherworldly characters who are visiting his town for a convention. Joko and his colleagues start to carry Wanda, Sir Barnett, Pozzi, Professor Krank, Pan Ton, Gunnar Ader and Doctor Fersen around the city and they are handsomely rewarded for their services with gold coins.

"the old fellow got nimbly to his feet and leapt back on his shoulders"

One afternoon, while Joko is being straddled by Sir Barnett, he faints and falls. When he wakes up he finds that he has 'fused' with Sir Barnett at his back, as if they were glued together. Their skins have been grafted together where they touch when piggybacking. Joko takes Sir Barnett home to his room. One by one, Wanda, Pozzi, Professor Krank, Pan Ton, Gunnar Ader and Doctor Fersen come to his room and they all fuse to the body of Joko. Meanwhile, Joko, is being maltreated by his 'parasites' and they proceed by killing his two sisters, his mother and father. Before they die however, his mother and father succeed in killing all of the seven parasites with an axe.

When Joko wakes up he finds that the seven have disappeared and that his wounds have healed. However, it appears that the creatures have found a place inside his body. He is the host to the seven bodies who each in turn commit terrible atrocities when being in control of Joko's body. Joko decides to kill himself. His body survives but the parasites inside him die. The parasites start to spread a stench. When the parasites are dead exactly one year, a bus of tourists stops in front of his door and say in unison: "Congratulations Joko!"

See also




Unless indicated otherwise, the text in this article is either based on Wikipedia article "Joko's Anniversary" or another language Wikipedia page thereof used under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License; or on research by Jahsonic and friends. See Art and Popular Culture's copyright notice.

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