“Is He Living or is He Dead?”  “Do you like the story? Why?”

I am familiar with the works of Mark TWAIN, both popular and not. I like this writer's style.

After reading the work "he is alive or dead", I can say that it seemed to me interesting. I even thought about the fact that after all, really to all the famous artists of the last century, fame came after death. It is now they are known and their paintings are sold for fabulous money at auction or they are in private collections. And in the period of their creativity they really had to make ends meet.

In the story, the action is perceived more as an adventure, not a desperate act, I do not know why. Maybe because of the author's style of writing, or maybe it's my perception of the story. Like, as the author writes about how artists hard and those they have nothing to eat sometimes. And that she has exhausted the opportunity to profitably sell their work or even somehow make money on them.

And then one of the characters comes "wonderful" idea of how you can earn. According to the law of the genre, of course, this idea is first rejected, and then agrees. And then the real adventure begins, with a twisted plot and an unknown end. So, as the heroes except his ego had nothing to lose, they get involved in this adventure. The author showed well how far people can go in a desperate situation, because you do not forget, according to the plan, one of the heroes must die, though not really, but still. And that means that he will never be able to use his name, and I think that means that he will never be one hundred percent himself.

And then a new question arises, is it despair or something else? Perhaps at first the idea itself was out of desperation, and then it flowed into an adventure, but as we see in the process of action, one of the friends was lazier or less motivated, as he did not go far in the cities. But others on the contrary went to Paris and even in other cities. What motivated them? Motivation, despair or is it greed? After all, they spread the news about the death of his friend as a game, as a joke.

Despite all this, I liked the story, because it was nice to read it. I am glad that none of the characters died, at least in the hardships of creativity. I'm sorry that one of the heroes had to bury his name to become necessary and popular.

I would like to hope that in the modern world you will not have to bury yourself, which people began to appreciate your work.