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95th out of 104 books
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30 voters
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The Interrogation
From the original Atheneum edition jacket, 1964.
"J.M.G. Le Clézio, revelation of the literary year" ran the headline of the Paris Express after last year's prizes had been awarded. The Goncourt jury was locked five to five until its president used his double vote to give the prize to the older candidate. Ten minutes later the Renaudot jury elected the candidat
...morePaperback, 256 pages
Published
March 9th 2010
by Simon & Schuster
(first published 1963)
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Initially intoxicating, the writing suffused with a visionary apprehension of the world, like a Van Gogh world everywhere seething and alive and teetering on madness, but then it kind of let me down toward the end as it wrapped itself too neatly up and strove for "significance". And maybe one or two too many lit tricks, but still a powerful book.
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THis is a pretentious quasi experimental novel done better by other writers of his generation. Not without interest in first hundred pages but sags under the weight of it's smug, conflated narritive vocue and technique. I sincerely hope his books gets better as his career progresses considering he won the Nobel for Literature.
I'm not sure if anyone is going to be swayed by my saying this, but either way: Read This! Seriously.
I know that the Nobel committee are a bunch of stodgy pretentious American hating bastards, but in this instance, they really got it right. There's not much that I can actually say about the book because there isn't a great deal that occurs, but never has nothing happening been described so perfectly. It's not a nothing happens in the "Seinfeld sense" either. It's more of a...more
I know that the Nobel committee are a bunch of stodgy pretentious American hating bastards, but in this instance, they really got it right. There's not much that I can actually say about the book because there isn't a great deal that occurs, but never has nothing happening been described so perfectly. It's not a nothing happens in the "Seinfeld sense" either. It's more of a...more
I was recently told that men typically write introspectively and that women write outwardly about the world around them: if this is the case then I am ashamed to say that I particularly like very masculine books and this is one of them.
This is Le Clézio's first novel and it feels that way but does anyone ever really get tired of poetic, introspective, observations about time, memory and death - Particularly death. The word death must be one of the most used words in this book w...more
per essere l'opera prima di un 23enne l'ho trovato notevole anche se un tantino pretenzioso; la storia è presto detta, si tratta dei percorsi di un giovane uomo nei meandri della sua psiche contorta e contemporaneamente nei vicoli e nel lungomare di una città balneare in un afoso ed assolato agosto. Si potrebbe definirlo un esistenzialista, alcune digressioni filosofiche lo suggeriscono, seguirlo nei suoi processi mentali a volte risulta ostico ma le descrizioni e la resa degli spezzoni di chiac...more
This is one of those books that has to be better in French. I've read a lot of Le Clezio in French and they all totally blew me away. The vision and depth he has for scenery and characters is truly breathtaking...at least in French
Maybe this is a horrible translation because as far as I can tell the book is about a soldier living in an abandoned house after either a mental breakdown or deserting the army....or both. And his obsession with a local girl, Michele, makes very little se...more
Maybe this is a horrible translation because as far as I can tell the book is about a soldier living in an abandoned house after either a mental breakdown or deserting the army....or both. And his obsession with a local girl, Michele, makes very little se...more
I must say I find this book very french and very 60s. Not a bad thing mind you. Clearly copied by many others after. Easy to see why it won such a prestigious prize, especially by one so young. I recently watched Fando Y Lis which came out a couple of years or so later. Although different they held similarities for me in that they both are examples of the type of experimentalism in film and literature that was popularized in the 60s and 70s. Clearly the protagonist is insane but the world is sho...more
This is a look inside the head of a crazy man, who I suppose Clezio wants to show might not be so crazy after all. Is sanity a relative thing? Are our values? While his descriptions are really nice, working through the impressions they impart, I found they went on too long at certain parts. So much of the novel was getting inside the kid's head with little actual plot, that I found myself getting bored. In some respects, I found myself reminded of The Stranger, although that book is much ti...more
I love it when an author inadvertently sums up his own book somewhere along the way:
"You don't see that the man who wrote "the earth is blue like an orange" is a lunatic or a fool? -- Of course not, you say to yourself there's a genius, he's dislocated reality in a couple of words."
Whoever decided to give this guy a Nobel Prize for this book decided that he was a genius for the same reason. I'm more inclined to the "lunatic or a fool" camp....more
"You don't see that the man who wrote "the earth is blue like an orange" is a lunatic or a fool? -- Of course not, you say to yourself there's a genius, he's dislocated reality in a couple of words."
Whoever decided to give this guy a Nobel Prize for this book decided that he was a genius for the same reason. I'm more inclined to the "lunatic or a fool" camp....more
A part des mots qui se succèdent pour former des phrases qui semblent ne pas avoir de liens entre elles, je peux dire que je me suis forcée à le lire pour les cours. Si ça n'avait tenu qu'à moi, j'aurais fermé le livre au bout de trois pages de lecture.
El Atestado es una novela, escrita por un jovenísimo Le Clézio, que relata la vida y los delirios de un sujeto, Adam Pollo, el cual, vivendo retirado en una villa abandonada en lo alto de una colina, mantiene una actitud puramente contemplativa ante el entorno social que lo agrede.
Algunos pasajes de la obra son algo densos y difíciles de entender, pero parte del encanto de la lectura del Atestado es formarse uno mismo sus propias conclusiones de lo que se lee, aunque no resulten del to...more
Algunos pasajes de la obra son algo densos y difíciles de entender, pero parte del encanto de la lectura del Atestado es formarse uno mismo sus propias conclusiones de lo que se lee, aunque no resulten del to...more
real raw stuff, the guys first book so he really lets some goofy metaphors rip. sorry i havent beenr eading much lately i figured out how to play super nintendo rpgs on my phone so ive been a shit lately.
Falls somewhere between Beckett's early short stories and early Amis. Which is to say I liked it, though it felt "early". Felt like it was supposed to feel like it went on too long, and did.
I bought it because of the uber-cool book cover. He also won the Nobel Prize this year for literature. But again, the book cover looks good and the author is handsome.
Pretentious filth. I hated it. Nothing more to say besides how awful I feel about this book. Waste of my time. Garbage. Garbage. Garbage
tutto un gran guazzabuglio di manierismi neo-avanguardistici proprio tantissimo insopportabili, dal mio punto di vista.
più diplomaticamente: che cagata.
più diplomaticamente: che cagata.
I have to confess to not getting this book. Was it to post-modern? Too French? Too philosophical/turned meta-physical? They sort of all merged into one. The book takes a major turn 3/4 of the way through and after the turn, I sort of wish I'd read the first part a bit more carefully.
I continue to think highly of Le Clezio and enjoy his style and language, but at times wonder if I'm not up to speed for modern literature, or if the whole literary world is duped.
I continue to think highly of Le Clezio and enjoy his style and language, but at times wonder if I'm not up to speed for modern literature, or if the whole literary world is duped.
If you weren't having an existential crisis when you start, you will be when you finish.
Guess I will keep the number of JMG Le Clezio that I read to 1.
An excellent read in my opinion. I'm not sure why Le Clezio isn't very popular. The two books of his that I've read have been wonderful.
It's like reading an endless dream: things are slow, disjointed, and don't always make sense. There's mystery, and things happen to this man that probably aren't true. Of note, I did have to almost force myself to stick with it as I'm used to a much faster pace. Yet you can see the beauty of his writing when you take time to appreciate his subtlety.
At first, I enjoyed reading the book. Then some chapters just got too strange and I thought the book sucked. The ending chapter is great, though, and worth the time I spent to get there. While this book was in my hands it ranged from 2 to 4 stars and ended at 5. Overall, though, I cannot say anything much more than 'I liked it.'
Ridiculous. No basis for a "Nobel Prize" . . . Flap summary very misleading. Characters are not likable.
Honestly, I did not know what to make of this book. The world through the eyes of one mentally disturbed fellow for sure--with insights for the "sane" I guess, and some striking parallels to the science of the origin of everything.
It took a while to really get into, but worth the effort. Certainly not a "novel" in the traditional sense of the word. Very psychological and tests the fine line society has drawn between brilliance and insanity.
gorgeous and slow. do not read if you are impatient, or love hard plot lines. the pace of this pressure cooker may wear on modern Americans (not a judgement, just an observation).
I am a sucker for introspection. This accident report finds its American version in the cartoon Duckman. See: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=blppKS-nz...
Juanita
is currently reading it
I am reading this in English. The title is
The Interrogation in English. It was his
first novel published at age 23.
The Interrogation in English. It was his
first novel published at age 23.
A very dreamy, introspective book. I don't know what to make of it yet, but I do like what I have read so far.
Beautiful writing, too bad I was bored by it. Sometimes, I wish I was more French.
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Jean-Marie Gustave Le Clézio, better known as J. M. G. Le Clézio (born 13 April 1940) is a Franco-Mauritian novelist. The author of over forty works, he was awarded the 1963 Prix Renaudot for his novel Le Procès-Verbal and the 2008 Nobel Prize in Literature.
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