Exercises in Style

[Valerie]

I just finished Queneau's Exercises in Style.

In this collection, Queneau tells the same banal anecdote in 99 different styles (although the edition I read had extras added in). Before I started reading this book, I was worried it might be boring. However, it caught my attention right away. There is a lot of humor and it is very interesting to read the same story (which by the second time you are VERY familiar with) told in different styles. Some of the styles seemed academic or at least, very experimental. Most of the styles are very recognizable, which is what makes this book so interesting - 'seeing' a writer in top form telling the same small story in so many ways. 4*

[Kristel]

January 2014; This book really is not a novel in my opinion but it is included in 1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die. It is what it says in the title, a couple of paragraphs about an encounter on a crowded bus by the narrator is told repeatedly 99 times in different styles.
I guess that this would be a good translation. Barbara Wright won recognition as on the list of the 50 Outstanding Translations of the Last 50 years. The narrator has done a good job in translating this work and described it as great fun.
The book has linguistic knowledge, ingenuity and humor. It could be interesting to a person studying writing and it certainly gave good examples of things like onomatopeoeia, past, present, passive and even mathematical.
Raymond Queneau is a poet, scholar and mathematician. He is also a linguist and study of language.
The initials for each of the Exercises were done by Stefan Themerson and are unique enough that I think he deserved recognition. They are naken figures doing callestenics in the shape of the first letter of the word.
A quick read for 2 pts in the 1001 Challenge for 2014. Thank you Kyle.

[Diane]

A highly experimental book in which the same situation is related in a number of different ways and styles. I don't think this book would be considered enjoyable by everyone, but I liked it.