Mateo's review
A Void
by Georges Perec
Mateo's review
A Void by Georges Perec
Mateo's review
rating:
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. "Says the black bird, 'Not again.') and this meta-textual experience playfully challenges a lot of my assumptions about what it means to write, read, or be in a story.
And all y'all should check out the work of the group of writers and mathemeticians known as Oulipo if you ever get the chance.
And all y'all should check out the work of the group of writers and mathemeticians known as Oulipo if you ever get the chance.
