La Vie Mode D'Emploi

Rating:
Summary: The virtuoso plays with the micro roman
Review: This is a tour de force of interwoven life fragments. George Perec was apparently always far a head in all Oulipo style games (Oulipo was some sort of bizzare literary group imposing on themselves impossible challenges) and this is the result of such a self imposing dare.

Well, what do you expect from a guy who wrote a long roman in French without a single instance of the letter e!

Anyway, the book at hand is mainly impressive. It tells about a zillion little stories, some parallel, some crossing. All along, you feel the craftmanship of the author, in designing the characters and giving them depth and interest.

Still, to me it was too post-modern to be considered a real sweeping read. If you're into a bit of experimental literature but won't give up concepts like narrative and characters, Perec is the author for you and this book (preferably in the original French) a good selection.