A Void (Verba Mundi)
by Georges Perec
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other reviews (showing 1-20 of 299)
I can't choose multiple dates, so instead I'll say here that I tried reading this book in '95, '97, '01, and again in '03. It kills me. Every time. The insomnia that has plagued me my whole life comes from the way I obsessively think about words and combinations of words. This is what goes through my head when I'm thinking of nothing else. Then this guy Gilbert Adair goes and translates a French novel written by Georges Perec in 1969, and I obsess over it. I start reading, and I can't get...more
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Read in January, 2005
It took me a few times to actually get into this novel. while i knew it was missing "e"s i still felt the need to make SURE that there REALLY weren't any for the first couple of pages, the first couple of times i tried. i picked it up again in law school, when i could no longer concentrate on any detail, and found that i loved the book for the mystery story it told. i am one lazy human being, but perec references other cultural events, art, literature, etc to supplement descriptive wo...more
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Two stars; it's not that interesting. That said, the translator deserves twenty for translating a French novel that omits the letter E into an English novel that does the same. In French, if you drop all Es, you can still write the feminine singular form of the. Because we don't have an e-less version of "the," though, the verbal calisthenics that go into doing without the French "la" are pretty spectacular. I'm pushing it by filing A Void under read - I put it down a ...more
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recommends it for:
all
This is a hilarious book, written originally in French without the use of the letter "e," and then translated brilliantly by Gilbert Adair using the same restriction. I'll be teaching parts of it this fall in the senior writing seminar (topic: Restrictions) and hadn't read it in years. Basically, it is a strict Oulipo project--"Oulipo" being a short form of the French words for "Workshop for potential literature." The rule must be adhered to in the creation of the w...more
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I got to page 72 and couldn't go on. I endured all of the Anton Vowl nonsense and was about to call it quits when the search began and we started to get more of a story. Some dialogue, some plot development. But then it went back into Vowl's diary and I just couldn't take it.
First of all, I could never write a book without the letter 'e'. So, there's that; congrats. But if I could I wouldn't make the entire book about a missing letter. It's just too much: e.g. Anton Vowl is mi...more
First of all, I could never write a book without the letter 'e'. So, there's that; congrats. But if I could I wouldn't make the entire book about a missing letter. It's just too much: e.g. Anton Vowl is mi...more
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Read in January, 2000
recommends it for:
Respecters of virtuosity
Like some of the other reviewers, I can't really say I read this book. It was years ago; I'm not sure I even finished the first chapter. But I wasn't expecting it to be fun reading; I picked it up in a bookstore solely to assess the technique -- which is admirable. I give it five stars for that in the same way that Giotto's circle was highly rated by the Pope, not for any literary merit, so don't take my rating as a recommendation. But it's something to see, if not to read.
The one thing I se...more
The one thing I se...more
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Read in August, 2007
I'd heard about it for years before coming across it at my local branch public library--THE novel written in French entirely without use of the letter 'e', and then somehow translated into English with the same constraint. What I wasn't expecting was that it would be amazingly fun to read both for the adventurous lexicographical slaloming and detours through the dictionary as for its bizarre characters and plot twists. Throw in some parodic paraphrasing of some of the Wester canon's best (e.g. &...more
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Read in September, 2006
recommends it for:
oulipo enthusiasts
Anytime an author can pull off an entire novel (a whodunit murder mystery at that) without using the letter "E" deserves recognition. For someone to do it with as much grace and aplomb as Perec, it deserves praise. Not many people out there know of this guy, but I can assure you, he is one of the All Time Masters. He's in the upper pantheon of awesome writers, his skill uniquely unequalled. I can't heap enough accolades on this guy: virtuoso, wizard, genius, et cetera. There is a ...more
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This is the book that has no e's in it. can you beleive that. this sucker wrote this novel in french, and happened to put no e's at all. the translation also has no e's. the story itself, the plot is a little shoddy, it moves around, but i guess you really can't do much when you have a vowel you refuse to use. this is ingenius, and i tried reading it probably back in 1996, but i never got rid of the speed i was doing, so in 2001 i finally read it and i thought it was a good novel. somethin...more
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recommends it for:
idiot savants, alpha drunks
Je l'ai lu en francais au premier. And later, I read it in English. I don't know which I liked best. Because of the tricky nature of the novel (the missing 'e'), the translation is considerably different than the original. Avec La Disparition, le dictionnaire etait toujours a la main en faisant le lecteur gravement difficile. In English, however, I enjoyed its many obscurities. I reveled in them. Gilbert Adair is a wonder. He practically had to write a new novel. For that alone it ...more
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Read in February, 2008
recommends it for:
fans of the crying of lot 49, if on a winters night a traveler, or anything written by danielewski
wow. if you take the movie "the number 23" and mix it with thomas pynchon's "the crying of lot 49" you might get something [a little more linear] than this book.
amazing.
it's a little difficult to get into. understandably a book that contains not a single "e" is quite wordy and filled with a plethora of unnecessarily lengthy synonyms, however once you get into it, it is absolutely enthralling.
the plot is a crazy murder-mystery conspiracy type story that invol...more
amazing.
it's a little difficult to get into. understandably a book that contains not a single "e" is quite wordy and filled with a plethora of unnecessarily lengthy synonyms, however once you get into it, it is absolutely enthralling.
the plot is a crazy murder-mystery conspiracy type story that invol...more
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Read in June, 2008
This book is amazing. It's pace drags you on and on whether you like it or not, and by being very self-aware - with many of the characters mentioning a void, an omission, which of course refers to the lack of the letter "e" anywhere in the book - it is very appealing and engaging.
One thing I would say against it is that it sometimes becomes very complicated. At times it needs not only a dictionary but a pop culture manual to help decipher what is being referred to, but often it rea...more
One thing I would say against it is that it sometimes becomes very complicated. At times it needs not only a dictionary but a pop culture manual to help decipher what is being referred to, but often it rea...more
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Read in December, 2007
Totally satisfying, though not for folks lacking stoicism and assiduity. Probably most highly thought of by souls familiar with and forgiving of structuralist and po-mo thought. I still cannot avoid basking in our author's playful adaptations of traditional familiar works, such as Ozymandias, Song of Solomon, and a short synopsis of Moby Dick. Playful and succinct (sort of), with not a Vowl too many.
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Read in March, 2008
Love is the wrong word, not least of all due to the presence of an "e". Wavering between significant and insignificant, which is precisely where Perec seemed to want it. Life A User's Manual is more pleasurable and more sustained ... but this is just brazen, whimsical, erudite (often pointlessly), bibliophilic and logophilic ... the book a linguistic idiot savant would write after reading The Maltese Falcon if his mom had attended lit theory classes in 68 at Nancy when he was in utero.
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Have you ever tried to write a paragraph without the letter "E"? How about a novel? What about translating that novel into another language, all the while preserving the omission of the letter "E"? This accomplishment alone is outstanding. The story was fairly interesting and coherent as well. Everyone should at least attempt to read this book in order to have the sensation of something missing as you read.
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recommends it for:
Nerds like me
An awesome, entertaining exercise in writing, that of trying to avoid the letter e, and making its absence part of the story. True, it leads to some truly mind bending verbiage, but just watching as Perec slinks his way through the language avoiding having to use the letter E is amazing. It all falls apart when he has to type the name of the bard William Shakspar...
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a book written in French entirely without the letter "e" - and then TRANSLATED TO ENGLISH - also without the letter "e". The plot is nonsensical but its an amazing feat (two really) of penmanship, and fun for people who enjoy braniac word games and ridiculous stuff like that.
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Read in May, 2008
this book is literally a literary journey. i see how others have made comparisons to Perec as the French Joyce. it's amazing that Perec wrote the whole novel without using the letter "e" once, and yet not make it a gimmick, but a true identity to the story.
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I found this impossible to read without keeping my guard up for 'e's. This is more of a marvelous creation than a book. I imagine the English translation has little-if anything-to do with the original. This is a book to be collected, justly, and not read.
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I'm trying to read this book right now but it's really hard to motivate myself because it's not light reading. The cool thing about it though is that there are no e's in the book, crazy huh?
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