A chronicle of a lifelong, hollow existence marked by poverty and failed attempts at upward mobility unfolds through the misadventures of a gaunt, perpetually hungry man. Cursed by physical frailty from birth and doomed by circumstance—bereft of parental care, undernourishment, and a string of unsuccessful jobs—he ekes out a meager living as a collector of discarded items. His body, thin and constantly starved, becomes a stage for a series of desperate gambles for food. In a moment of extreme hunger, he risks ingesting even the most unpromising objects—a small nut among mounds of waste and later a bottle of fine liquor—which, though momentarily relieving, only deepen his hunger. The situation escalates when he ventures into a restaurant where he secures meals without payment by exploiting a loophole with an understanding manager. Yet neither the food nor subsequent bouts of forced sustenance ever quell his need. He soon participates in an eating contest that defies natural limits. Despite his fragile frame, he consumes an ever-increasing number of hard-boiled eggs—doggedly pushing through in a spectacle that both amuses and puzzles onlookers. His seemingly paradoxical inability to gain weight, even as he ingests and regurgitates vast amounts of food, prompts incredulous stares from judges and spectators alike. Medical professionals intervene as his physical state deteriorates under the strain of his bizarre digestive pattern. Repeated examinations reveal that the food he consumes appears to pass through him without providing nourishment, his stomach manifesting odd, fluctuating reactions—swelling, bizarre shape changes, and rapid contractions. Despite interventions including forced surgery and the administration of experimental tablets designed to hasten digestion, his condition remains inexplicable by conventional medical standards. Simultaneously, shadowy figures—plausibly representing forces or entities from another universe—contemplate the significance of his unusual physiology. They attribute the phenomenon to an accidental activation of a mysterious “transfer” mechanism triggered by the ingestion of that fateful nut. Through cryptic discussions, these figures deliberate a plan to exploit his body as a conduit for transferring matter from their realm into theirs. His stomach, they surmise, has become inextricably linked with an inter-universal process, enabling a sort of collateral flow of materials that serves the needs of a distant colony. After chaotic escapades—including a desperate escape from a hospital and a turbulence-laden taxi ride—the protagonist is abruptly transformed. His health improves noticeably: he gains weight, his frail muscles harden, his deteriorated teeth renew, and his overall vitality is restored under the covert manipulation of these external powers. He is soon recruited into a new life, offered stable employment and a promise of satiety that seems to free him from the relentless pangs of hunger. However, the narrative’s dark irony persists. Despite the apparent success and the transformation, a latent emptiness—both physical and existential—remains. His appetite, once an emblem of insatiable poverty, now serves as a marker of the ongoing influence of forces beyond his control. The once-hapless man is now a pawn in a larger, surreal scheme in which his body is repurposed as a living transfer switch between two universes. This grotesque twist underscores a bitter commentary on exploitation: while external agencies manipulate and benefit from his anomaly to sustain their own colony on a distant world, he is condemned to live with the ever-returning reminder of his unsatisfied hunger. The work ultimately weaves together elements of dark humor, social criticism, and speculative sci-fi. It delineates the journey of a man mired in deprivation, whose physical starvation becomes intertwined with a metaphysical mechanism that subverts natural laws. His plight serves as both a grotesque parody of the “rags-to-riches” narrative and a warning of how the vulnerable can be exploited by impersonal, higher forces. The reader is left with an unsettling image of a man transformed yet perpetually haunted by the void of hunger—a stark metaphor for the inescapable cycle of need and the manipulative machinations of unseen powers.
By William Morrison · First published 1972 · Genre: Absurdist Fiction, Dark Comedy, Satire