A Cup of Rage - Raduan Nassar

Translated by Stefan Tobler

A Cup of Rage is a book of extremes: from the languid eroticism of the opening sections to the furious anger of ‘the explosion’, author Raduan Nassar explores the links between passion, lust and loathing within a couple’s relationship. Originally written in 1970, and published in 1978, this is the book’s first UK release, with a translation by And Other Stories publisher Stefan Tobler. Made up of seven chapters, each presented as one continuous sentence, A Cup of Rage is a short, explosive burst of emotion which still feels fresh nearly half a century later.

Nassar presents a snapshot of one day in a couple’s life: starting in the evening, with a languid seduction, progressing to a furious row the next morning, separation, and then reconciliation. As in Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf, the couple’s relationship is theatrical: they are constantly aware of being overheard by their housekeeper, and by neighbours. Their argument is heightened, each of them consciously playing a role: he the brutish man, she, with 'her hair dishevelled, enjoying, almost to the point of orgasm, the sensual drama of her own position'. The purpose is to build tension, ready for a cathartic release.

From the start, everyday occurrences are filled with an erotic potential; arriving home, the man begins the slow process of seduction by eating a tomato: ‘making a show of biting into it with relish in order to reveal my teeth, strong as a horse's, knowing that she couldn't tear her eyes off my mouth, knowing that beneath her silence she was writhing with impatience'. Anticipation is key: 'The first cigarette of the morning, the one I'd soon be smoking after breakfast, was without the shadow of a doubt one of the seven wonders of the world.'

The writing at this stage is languid. 'We would escape from bed naked and desecrate the kitchen table,' the man imagines. In bed, 'she wound herself around me like a creeping vine, her claws closing where they could, and she had claws on her hand and claws on her feet… surrendering herself lasciviously to the myths of the moment'. Yet Nassar never forgets the link between sex and violence, lust and terror. The woman’s obsession with feet is ‘nightmarish’; even the man’s tenderness is ‘virulent, vertiginous’, a passion which takes hold of him.

The man is playing the archetypal role of the bad boy, with a method actor’s dedication: 'the shine I forged in my eyes, where I brought into plain view what was most vile and sordid in me, knowing that carried away by my other side she would shout 'so this is the bastard I love''. She is, by turns, submissive and caustic. In a role reversal, she undercuts the image of the brute which she has summoned up, pricking him with barbed comments about ‘little boys’, and exposing the gap between fantasy and reality: 'Behold the man! Narcissus! Always remote and fragile, anarchy's offspring'. Ultimately, whether the couple’s violence is real or acted, they are dependent on one another: 'In that instance I needed a prop, needed more than ever - in order to act - the screams of a supporting actress'.

A Cup of Rage is an intense burst of writing, a distillation of the violent passions which drive a relationship. Nassar brilliantly demonstrates the parallels between the way his characters provoke each other’s lusts and rage, as part of the same continuum. Playful and provocative, this is a timely rediscovery.