I told you I got book obsessions, didn’t I?? And so here is more about Perec. I felt the need to read more of his work after “Species of Space” and this little volume had arrived at the same time:
So, what’s it about and what’s so special? Well, this is what it says on the back:
And that’s no word of a lie. There are no full stops and no capitalisation and the only punctuation I think was dashes. You’d think that 84 pages of that would be hard to read, but amazingly it isn’t – Perec’s brilliantly constructed the rhythm of the book so that it reads easily! It’s like a kind of flow chart with options translated into text and it’s clever and also very, very funny! So the poor man being advised has to contend with all the possibilities that might come up on such a chart (is it Friday? Yes. Is it in Lent? No. Has your boss swallowed a fish bone? etc etc) and goes round and round in circles like you can on these things, as your life ticks away.
I shan’t say any more about this except that it’s utterly brilliant, Perec was a genius and this is one of the funniest things I’ve read in a long time. ‘Nuff said!
vicki (skiourophile / bibliolathas)
Aug 22, 2014 @ 08:06:01
This is probably the one for me, as I loved Queneau’s Exercises in Style – again there’s that thing about how can it *possibly* work just retelling a story? But it does.
kaggsysbookishramblings
Aug 22, 2014 @ 09:39:20
I *must* read Queneau! This Perec is wonderful – highly recommended!
heavenali
Aug 22, 2014 @ 09:56:37
I do think playing with language like that is so clever and can be strangely lyrica although this sounds funny too. I wonder if Perec and I shall ever meet?
kaggsysbookishramblings
Aug 22, 2014 @ 10:28:50
It *is* very funny in a dry, witty way. I hope you read Perec some day!
Jonathan
Aug 22, 2014 @ 12:38:34
To keep things simple, for we must do our best to keep things simple, I will just say that this is my only Perec so far – what a hoot!
kaggsysbookishramblings
Aug 22, 2014 @ 12:52:21
We must indeed keep things simple and hope Miss Wye is in a good mood and that the eggs weren’t off! I did love this book! 🙂
Annabel (gaskella)
Aug 22, 2014 @ 17:00:20
I love this! Sounds fab
kaggsysbookishramblings
Aug 22, 2014 @ 17:11:28
It is! I’m obviously turning into a Perec addict!!