Randolph "Dilda" Carter

Bizarre little book. Four stories and a bogus preface which sets the stage for all four. The stories either take place in an asylum in Tunis, or use this asylum as a framing device, much like "club" tales. In the first story the guy needs, um, a little head. So he can get a little head. No, seriously, he needs to get a shrunken head to keep his girlfriend happy. It turns out to be easier than you would think. Then the next guy thinks he is Jesus. This leads to some emotional problems for the narrator. Later another guy gets stuck in a swimming pool for a long time and it makes him go crazy. The last guy tells the narrator that he's not insane but wants to get that way because crazy people have access to more ideas than the sane. Then when this last guy convinces the narrator that God is dead, he (the narrator) gets his own stay in the Big House in Tunis. I hear it's nice.

There is just the right blend of humor and horror in each of these stories.

Illustrated by Salvador Dali it is difficult to see how this ever got published by a mainstream publisher in 1950. Now I need to find the dust jacket...