book data
105 ratings,
4.05
average rating, 10 reviews
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published
August 5th 2003
(first published 1990)
by Harvill Press
binding
Paperback, 224 pages
isbn
1860467539
(isbn13: 9781860467530)
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other reviews (showing 1-20 of 203)
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avg 4.05
editions: all | this edition
editions: all | this edition
Read in January, 2002
Embarrassed by your juvenile excursions into French existentialism while listening to the Smiths in high school? Afraid to go back?
Well try A Man Asleep and move on to the rest of Perec's work. It's smart, concise and playful without being overwrought.
Perec was part of Oulipo. A group of experimental writers who played with extreme forms of structure similar to Lars Van Trier's Dogma rules. Some of the other authors in the group are more compelling than others with Pe...more
Well try A Man Asleep and move on to the rest of Perec's work. It's smart, concise and playful without being overwrought.
Perec was part of Oulipo. A group of experimental writers who played with extreme forms of structure similar to Lars Van Trier's Dogma rules. Some of the other authors in the group are more compelling than others with Pe...more
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5 comments
Enjoyed this but not nearly as much as Perec's Life: A User's Manual.
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Read in January, 2008
Things is a short novel set in the 60s about a couple living in Paris and Tunisia. Their desire for material objects causes an emptiness regardless of whether they possess or lack objects. It's written in the conditional, so the couple seems hypothetical and typical at the same time. Very arresting, absorbing style. It's hard not to think you are living their life even though the narrator is distant & remote...eerie parallels to the present...
About to read A Man Asleep
About to read A Man Asleep
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2 novelas by Perec. 'Les Choses' is the more arresting, still obviously relevant to our consumer culture. 'A Man Asleep', is a scary picture of how a young student drops out, and how a terrible an allowed life of passivity, and lethargy can be. Perec is another hugely under-appreciated writer here in the US, and I intend to work up to reading his masterwork, 'Life -A User's Manual'.
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Read in June, 2008
I enjoyed Things much more than A Man Asleep. Being about the same age/at the same point in my life as the main characters, I found myself really identifying with the way the world appears to the Perec's characters. It doesn't do much to inspire hope for those who haven't "settled in" as far as life is concerned, but it's reassuring to remember we're all in the same boat.
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Read in April, 2007
recommends it for:
all of my friends
This is my favorite book that I have read in 2007, thus far. It really was everything I was hoping it could be and more. The way Perec discusses his characters in their relation to consumerism and materialism in 60s France is beautiful and heartbreaking, but something we all can relate to ourselves.
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Read in April, 2008
The style of writing is very detached. There is no dialogue, and I found it hard to get into the heads of the characters. Of the two stories, I liked "A Man Asleep" the least, because I had absolutely no empathy for the passive, lethargic student.
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De éste sólo he leído el primero, Las cosas, es de las descripciones más originales y terribles de la destrucción de una pareja, y un retrato bastante fiel de la vidita burguesa. Y es muy divertido.
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Read in January, 1993
Loved both these stories, but especially Things. This book confirmed my love of Perec's writing and different take on storytelling.
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