false 160026 0 0 1138622 0916583481 9780916583484 1 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1181326176m/1138622.jpg http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1181326176s/1138622.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1138622.Some_Thing_Black 4.48 29 160026 4.24 136 11 27173 4.44 356 17 1986 274566 1564783960 9781564783967 6 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1173329091m/274566.jpg http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1173329091s/274566.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/274566.The_Great_Fire_of_London_ 4.07 28 The Great Fire of London is one of the great literary undertakings of the last fifty years. At various times exasperating, daunting, moving, dazzling, and challenging, it has its origins in Jacques Roubaud's attempt to come to terms with the death of his young wife Alix, whose presence both haunts and gives meaning to every page. Having failed to write his intended novel ("The Great Fire of London"), instead he creates a book that is about that failure, but in the process opens up the world of the creative process, which is at once an attempt to bring order to his ravaged personal life and to construct an intricate literary project that functions according to strict rules, one of them being the palindrome. But rather than a confessional novel about himself and his wife, Roubaud follows in the tradition of the troubadours, where the objects of grief and love are identified obliquely and through literary artifice. At all times, Alix and his anguished loss of her are paramount, but usually couched or disguised by the writer's obsessive need to filter that anguish through reflections of the art of writing.


The Great Fire of London consists of a main text ("story") and two sets of digressions ("interpolations" and "bifurcations"). Although best to read the insertions as they appear (indicated in the main text with cross-reference markers), this is an "interactive" text in which readers can decide for themselves how they wish to proceed. Roubaud's novel stands as a lyrical counterpart of those great postmodern masterpieces by fellow Oulipians Georges Perec (Life: A User's Manual) and Italo Calvino (If on a Winter's Night a Traveler).]]> 160026 4.24 136 11 1989 77873 1564783839 9781564783837 0 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1170901703m/77873.jpg http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1170901703s/77873.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/77873.The_Form_of_the_City_Changes_Faster_Alas_than_the_Human_Heart 4.29 14 160026 4.24 136 11 27173 4.44 356 17 44120 4.36 196 12 1999 436537 1564780694 9781564780690 0 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1174762179m/436537.jpg http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1174762179s/436537.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/436537.The_Plurality_of_Worlds_of_Lewis 4.50 8 160026 4.24 136 11 1991 519812 1564782565 9781564782564 0 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1175483492m/519812.jpg http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1175483492s/519812.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/519812.Hortense_Is_Abducted 4.29 7 160026 4.24 136 11 1984 958272 2020245469 9782020245463 0 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1179804488m/958272.jpg http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1179804488s/958272.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/958272.La_Belle_Hortense 4.00 6 160026 4.24 136 11 1985 6012366 1564785467 9781564785466 0 http://www.goodreads.com/images/nocover-111x148.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/images/nocover-60x80.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6012366.The_Loop 4.40 5 The Great Fire of London, Dalkey Archive Press is proud to publish the first English translation of The Loop, the second novel in Roubaud's Proustian series, which has in its capacity to astonish been compared to the compositions of Messiaen and the buildings of Antonio Gaudi. Devastated after the death of his young wife, Alix, the author conceives of a project that will allow him not only to continue writing, but continue living—writing a book that leads him to confront his terrible loss as well as examine the lonely world in which he now seems, more and more, to exist: that of Memory. The Loop finds Roubaud returning to his earliest recollections, as well as considering the nature of memory itself, and the process—both merciful and terrible—of forgetting. Neither memoir nor novel, by turns playful and despairing, The Loop is a masterpiece of contemporary prose.]]> 160026 4.24 136 11 2752113 4.40 5 0 1993 1643551 1564782557 9781564782557 0 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1186264694m/1643551.jpg http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1186264694s/1643551.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1643551.Hortense_in_Exile 4.25 4 Brimming with literary allusions, philosophical conundrums, witty interjections, and (of course) cats, HORTENSE IN EXILE is the third installment in the altogether delightful and hilarious "Hortense Series" by French novelist and mathematician Jacques Roubaud. Combining high literary sentiments with mathematical games, brilliant wordplay and an effusive sense of humor, Roubaud's works are some of the most enjoyable in all of contemporary literature, and he is considered to be one of the most accomplished members of Oulipo (the workshop for experimental literature founded by Raymond Queneau and including such figures as Georges Perec, Harry Mathews, and Italo Calvino).

]]> 160026 4.24 136 11 1984 602972 1933382538 9781933382531 1 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1176204303m/602972.jpg http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1176204303s/602972.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/602972.Poetry_etcetera_Cleaning_House 4.25 4 What is poetry today, and how does it fit into our daily lives? Through a series of intelligent and personal, often humorous essays the great French poet and fiction writer explores the role of poetry and poetry means to us.

]]> 160026 4.24 136 11 1995 2185633 202091249X 9782020912495 1 http://www.goodreads.com/images/nocover-111x148.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/images/nocover-60x80.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2185633.Parc_sauvage 4.00 3 160026 4.24 136 11 2008