A Void by Georges Perec

[Amanda]

On the surface this is a quirky novel that exists as a writing exercise- to write a novel without use of the letter ‘E’ (a tough feat that this was both done in the original French AND successfully converted to English without breaking the premise). The plot itself is a tongue and cheek nod to this premise- friends and follows of one Anton Vowl (Get it?-this book is full of puns) go on the look for him in a story that involves a noir-esque mystery but also becomes increasing dark and horrifying.

This change in tone indicates something more serious about the terror of what happens when what we are used to is destroyed. I looked up if Perec intended anything specific in this metaphor, and found out it he was really writing about losing his father to the war, and his mother to the holocaust. In French, you cannot say Pere (father), mere (mother), family (famille) or his name (Georges Perec) without the E. He has to avoid these topics to cope or it goes into the horrifying end of the mystery, and he himself is rendered ‘ a void’ of a person because of this loss of the things most fundamental.

I thought this was brilliant, but the title actually works better in the translated English. The French “La Disparition” (The disappearance) works as well.

I gave it 5 stars.

[Pamela]

This was great fun - I started off by examining all the puns and clever ways the author and translator avoided using the letter ‘e’ (one of my favourites was “Your proposition is worth its avoirdupois in gold” ) and ended up getting absorbed in the bizarre and rather gruesome mystery.

Anton Vowl disappears and his friends start looking for him, tracing his path to the Azincourt estate, where a story unfolds of family secrets and blood feuds. It’s full of subplots and digressions that baffle and astound the reader, but ultimately it all makes a kind of sense which is perhaps the most amazing thing of all.

I thought it was a work of crazy genius. I preferred the setup in Life: A User's Manual, but this was just as original and impressive as a technical and imaginative work.