Rating: 
Summary: This is writing of the spirit
Review: I'd like to add a little comment to those of the 11 reviewers. I do share the rating of 5-stars with them.Georges Perec became a revelation for me for I thought I was about to read a thriller (in the sense of suspense). Certainly, suspense is but one of so many ingredients in Life..., but there is much more in this book;it is impossible for me to classify it. In fact it doesn't need classification. Perec's chapters, devised as pieces of a gigantic puzzle, are chapters of life itself. He has created a gallery of the most memorable characters ever found in a novella (he shares this with León Tostoy). Who can forget Mme Altamont, or Mr Bartlebooth, or Valene, or the concierge? They are extracted from life and one can only believe that there is a Mme Altamont around the corner. The parisian apartment building acquires life by the life of its inhabitants. Perec is a ironic, cultivated, encyclopedic, amusing, and a semiotician of writers. He is a masterly story-teller. Life, in his view, is that reality which is sad, hopeless, absurd, with no essence at all. He is deeply rooted in French existentialism. This book made me understand many things, but mainly not to lose time in non-value added activities. Life is so short, says Perec. Time is a constant and a systematic in the book. Time, time, time. Actually it ends: IT IS THE TWENTY-THIRD OF JUNE NINETEEN SEVENTY-FIVE AND IT IS EIGHT O'CLOCK IN THE EVENING. And then, one learns that he died at 46. Life was ephemeral for him as he forsaw it in his novella. I have the feeling that he wrote as a possesed, said to the world what he had to say and said good-bye
Rating:
Summary: A spellbinding masterpiece of experimental fiction.
Review: If you read the first few pages of this book after seeing all the glowing reviews on Amazon, you may wonder what we are so excited about. However, you will be rewarded if you persevere. In an ice-cold literary voice, Perec systematically describes the inhabitants and contents of a Paris apartment building. His style is at first totally uninvolving, yet somehow, amazingly, his monotonous descriptions come together like the tiles of a mosaic (or, to use Perec's image, the pieces of a jigsaw puzzle) to create a living, exciting picture. Even if you know nothing about the philosophical and aesthetic theories that gave this book its structure, you will find it enthralling.
Rating:
Summary: A spellbinding masterpiece of experimental fiction.
Review: If you read the first few pages of this book after seeing all the glowing reviews on Amazon, you may wonder what we are so excited about. However, you will be rewarded if you persevere. In an ice-cold literary voice, Perec systematically describes the inhabitants and contents of a Paris apartment building. His style is at first totally uninvolving, yet somehow, amazingly, his monotonous descriptions come together like the tiles of a mosaic (or, to use Perec's image, the pieces of a jigsaw puzzle) to create a living, exciting picture. Even if you know nothing about the philosophical and aesthetic theories that gave this book its structure, you will find it enthralling.
Rating:
Summary: great book
Review: It took me 2 weeks of focused effort to read this book...it's quite a project. But it was well worth it. One of those great books that can teach you a great deal.
Rating:
Summary: Mi ùltima obseciòn....Georges Perec; I was looking for you
Review: Leì apartes de "La vida,instrucciones de uso" en una conferencia de Italo Calvino...y debo decir que Perec me impresionò...un autor como el era lo que estaba buscando desde hacìa mucho tiempo. Personalmente lo concidero la versiòn literaria de lo que "Stereolab" es en la musica. God save Perec!!! Si alguien sabe dònde puedo comprar la versiòn en español de "Life A User`s Manual" estarìa totalmente agradecido que me contactara y me comentara. Thanks. Sonoman
Rating: 
Summary: Not for every literary buff.
Review: Manual, yes certainly manual labour is involved. I can acknowledge the intentions of Perecs structuring intellectually but was unable to translate this into an emotive or pleasurable response. The tone is distant and although the detail would suggest realism it is all just a pretext for a two dimensional jigsaw puzzle. Perhaps this is what you are seeking but such antiseptic games are not for me. It lacks both the humanity of Ulysees or the pure romance of The Flanders road to seek two books of comparable difficulty.
Rating:
Summary: One of the 5 most interesting books of 20th C.
Review: Much more than a puzzle, a painting, or an enormously detailed snapshot of a single instant in a single building (though it's all these) "Life" is also the story of Europe in the 20th Century. The emotional response to this history, the almost-unwritten ghost haunting the whole book, is overwhelming even in Perec's detatched style. To fail to see or feel this emotion is to be unable to read.
Rating:
Summary: absolutely brilliant
Review: Perec is a master of description, painting scenes and characters with lush detail; Bellos deserves much credit for such a rich translation of Perec's vital imagination. Perec creates short tales that stand alone wonderfully, and then weaves the stories together in a way that is mysterious, funny, entertaining and insightful all at once. It's not an "easy" or a "quick" read; his prose is so rich, I often found myself re-reading chapters just to soak it all up. Fans of airport novels likely won't enjoy it. But it is really an amazing, imaginative book, and one that you can sink your teeth into. Buy it now.
Rating:
Summary: Space, time and detail
Review: Perec switches dimensions: In an ordinary novel, the main dimension of movement is time - all movement in space and detail are derived from this movement in time. In Perec's "Life, A User's Manual" the main dimensions of movement are space, and not the least - detail. Any movement back or forth in time is merely derived from this primary movement. This peculiar mode of movement gives rise to a peculiar writing style where the writer can not mention an object without at the same time mentioning its details. It is a very contagious writing style, and so while reading this book, something I mainly did on the train to and from work - usually between 7AM and 9AM in the morning and between 4PM and 7PM in the evening on weekdays, except for tuesdays when I would either leave early or arrive late due to work-outs - I found myself digressing in details (moving in the dimension of detail) as I wrote email to friends or participated in other exchanges. It might remind you of Arabian Nights, except that it is the objects and not the people who tell the stories within the stories. A warning for you who wish to read this book: Just as with "Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance", you will find yourself wondering through the first 100 pages or so if this book is ever going to go anywhere. As opposed to the case of Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, you will find it doesn't. But by that time, you won't care that it doesn't. It is a wonderfully self-contained universe that starts and ends with nothing.
Rating:
Summary: Space, time and detail
Review: Perec switches dimensions: In an ordinary novel, the main dimension of movement is time - all movement in space and detail are derived from this movement in time. In Perec's "Life, A User's Manual" the main dimensions of movement are space, and not the least - detail. Any movement back or forth in time is merely derived from this primary movement. This peculiar mode of movement gives rise to a peculiar writing style where the writer can not mention an object without at the same time mentioning its details. It is a very contagious writing style, and so while reading this book, something I mainly did on the train to and from work - usually between 7AM and 9AM in the morning and between 4PM and 7PM in the evening on weekdays, except for tuesdays when I would either leave early or arrive late due to work-outs - I found myself digressing in details (moving in the dimension of detail) as I wrote email to friends or participated in other exchanges. It might remind you of Arabian Nights, except that it is the objects and not the people who tell the stories within the stories. A warning for you who wish to read this book: Just as with "Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance", you will find yourself wondering through the first 100 pages or so if this book is ever going to go anywhere. As opposed to the case of Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, you will find it doesn't. But by that time, you won't care that it doesn't. It is a wonderfully self-contained universe that starts and ends with nothing.
| 
