AUTHOR: Georges Perec
READ: January
THOUGHTS: My first Perec, which I was very excited for, but I did not like this book, or at least, I did not enjoy reading it. I guess I shouldn't say I didn't like it. Perec is obviously a very gifted writer and the approach here is novel enough and thematically coherent. In the stead of interiority there is only focus on the material/ephemeral details of young-people-life -- seems like an extension of the kind of stuff Robbe-Grillet and that ilk were doing, except that surface level detail is extended over larger periods of time and with a decidedly more sociological focus. Which brings me to my second point: this novel seems very much of its time -- '68 era Paris (though I think the novel takes place a few years before) and appears as a sort of 'critique' (is it even?) of the material and advertising culture of the period. I guess that was probably exciting when it was published but not exciting to me now since I dun read Baudrillard lolol (sorry). I don't know. The conceit of the novel became uninteresting to me about 30% through and I had to slog through the rest. Still planning on reading more Perec this year, and since this was his first novel I'm not really holding it against him!
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