Cossery’s main characters in this book are redescribing ironists par excellence. That point is indisputable. I think, however, Cossery’s diagnosis is apt but his prescription — or the prescription his main characters proffer — falls short for me. His themes fail to map neatly onto Rorty’s idea of the liberal ironist. In order to be happy, these characters must reject any positive notion of the future. They can only revel in the absurdity of the present, because this is the only certainty there can be in life. We see this in the ambivalence the main characters begin to feel when it looks as if their plans might actually lead to the end of their autocratic governor’s political career. They’re the kids shooting spitballs at the teacher. Their joie de vivre would evaporate if ever the teacher lost patience and abandoned the class room entirely.

But maybe that’s the whole point? Main characters are not meant to be idealized forms. The work of the novelist isn’t to draw a map to a better future or an improved way of “doing politics”. Maybe it’s enough to show that there there is something to be said about rejecting the received wisdom of the world you live in and taking the time to revel in its absurdity.