Alfred Jarry

So I just read the pioneer of absurdist literature in French, Alfred Jarry, a lifelong prankster. He is most famous for his succes de scandale (because he used a slightly altered word in place of excrement), Ubu roi, when he was a schoolboy. I have had trouble knowing what to make of his work, of which only a part was published in his lifetime. As you might expect, he died young of tuberculosis in 1907 after considerable substance abuse. His editors, on receiving his manuscripts, often wrote back asking what they were expected to do with his work, and I feel I may share their puzzlement.