Items related to Life, a User's Manual
Synopsis
Represents an exploration of the relationship between imagination and reality as seen through the eyes of the dying Serge Valene, an inhabitant of a large Parisian apartment block
"synopsis" may belong to another edition of this title.
Review
"A dazzling, crazy-quilt monument to the imagination" (Paul Auster New York Times)
"An eccentric, madly ambitious scheme to display life all at once. The product of a hectically ingenious intelligence, like James Joyce's" (Victoria Glendinning The Times)
"Amazing, moving and lovable" (New Statesman)
"The finest novel to appear in French since Beckett's trilogy" (Times Literary Supplement)
"Very funny and very sad... A treasure-chest of stories, something to be enjoyed by anyone who has ever responded to works on the same scale and in the same spirit as Rabelais and Chaucer and Sterne" (Scotsman)
Book Description
'The last major event in the history of the novel' Italo Calvino
"About this title" may belong to another edition of this title.
Search results for Life, a User's Manual
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Life, a Users Manual
Published by
David R. Godine Publisher, 1987
ISBN 10: 0879237007
ISBN 13: 9780879237004
Used
Hardcover
Seller: World of Books (was SecondSale), Montgomery, IL, U.S.A.
Seller rating 5 out of 5 stars
Hardback. Condition: Fair. One of the great novels of the century. Suddenly and unexpectedly, the late 20th century has produced a novel on the level of Joyce, Proust, Mann, Kafka, and Nabokov.--Boston Globe Structured around a single moment in time -- 8:00 p.m. on June 23, 1975 -- Perec's spellbinding puzzle begins in an apartment block in the XVIth arrondissement of Paris where, chapter by chapter, room by room, like an onion being peeled, an extraordinary rich cast of characters is revealed in a series of tales that are bizarre, unlikely, moving, funny, or (sometimes) quite ordinary. From the confessions of a racing cyclist to the plans of an avenging murderer, from a young ethnographer obsessed with a Sumatran tribe to the death of a trapeze artist, from the fears of an ex-croupier to the dreams of a sex change pop star to an eccentric English millionaire who has devised the ultimate pastime, Life A User's Manual is a manual of human irony, portraying the mixed marriages of fortunes, passions and despairs, betrayals and bereavements, of hundreds of lives in Paris and around the world. But the novel is more than an extraordinary range of individual stories; it is a closely observed account of life and experience. The apartment block's one hundred rooms are arranged in a magic square, and the book as a whole is peppered with a staggering range of literary puzzles and allusions, acrostics, problems of chess and logic, crosswords, and mathematical formula. All are there for the reader to solve. Seller Inventory # CIN0879237007A
Stock Image
Life, a Users Manual
Published by
David R. Godine Publisher, 1987
ISBN 10: 0879237007
ISBN 13: 9780879237004
Used
Hardcover
Seller: World of Books Inc, Montgomery, IL, U.S.A.
Seller rating 4 out of 5 stars
Hardback. Condition: Fair. One of the great novels of the century. Suddenly and unexpectedly, the late 20th century has produced a novel on the level of Joyce, Proust, Mann, Kafka, and Nabokov.--Boston Globe Structured around a single moment in time -- 8:00 p.m. on June 23, 1975 -- Perec's spellbinding puzzle begins in an apartment block in the XVIth arrondissement of Paris where, chapter by chapter, room by room, like an onion being peeled, an extraordinary rich cast of characters is revealed in a series of tales that are bizarre, unlikely, moving, funny, or (sometimes) quite ordinary. From the confessions of a racing cyclist to the plans of an avenging murderer, from a young ethnographer obsessed with a Sumatran tribe to the death of a trapeze artist, from the fears of an ex-croupier to the dreams of a sex change pop star to an eccentric English millionaire who has devised the ultimate pastime, Life A User's Manual is a manual of human irony, portraying the mixed marriages of fortunes, passions and despairs, betrayals and bereavements, of hundreds of lives in Paris and around the world. But the novel is more than an extraordinary range of individual stories; it is a closely observed account of life and experience. The apartment block's one hundred rooms are arranged in a magic square, and the book as a whole is peppered with a staggering range of literary puzzles and allusions, acrostics, problems of chess and logic, crosswords, and mathematical formula. All are there for the reader to solve. Seller Inventory # CIN0879237007A
Seller Image
Life: A User's Manual
Seller: Solr Books, Lincolnwood, IL, U.S.A.
Seller rating 5 out of 5 stars
Condition: acceptable. This book is in Acceptable condition. All pages are intact, but may have lots of notes, water damage or other issues and be ex library. Seller Inventory # BCV.0879237007.A
Seller Image
Life: A User's Manual
Published by
David R Godine Pub, 1987
ISBN 10: 0879237007
ISBN 13: 9780879237004
Used
Hardcover
First Edition
Seller: Snowden's Books, Santa Fe, NM, U.S.A.
Seller rating 5 out of 5 stars
Hardcover. Condition: Very Good. Dust Jacket Condition: Very Good. 1st Edition. Original hardcover in jacket, first printing, 581 pages, index. Book is solid and bright with minor reading wear. There is foxing (spotting) to the top and side page edges; light foxing to bottom page edges. Previous owner inscription on endpaper. The jacket is very bright in protective mylar sleeve. A few small chips, tears along edges mostly atop spine and back top/bottom edges, but not too much; small chips along spine edge back; some light rubbing, scratching. Very bright in mylar. Collectible first edition. ft. Seller Inventory # ABE-1780892596678
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Life: A User's Manual (English and French Edition)
Published by
David R Godine Pub, 1987
ISBN 10: 0879237007
ISBN 13: 9780879237004
Used
Hardcover
First Edition
Seller: Twice Sold Tales, Ashfield, MA, U.S.A.
Seller rating 5 out of 5 stars
hardcover. Condition: Fair. First Edition. 1987 Godine Press hard cover - 1st edition 1st printing - some wear to dust jacket (now in mylar cover) some staining on cover closed page edge and at end papers - price clipped - otherwise binding strong contents clean - enjoy. Seller Inventory # 2404300002
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Life: A User's Manual
Published by
Boston: David R. Godine, 1988., 1988
ISBN 10: 0879237007
ISBN 13: 9780879237004
Used
Hardcover
Seller: Materia Prima Books, New haven, CT, U.S.A.
Seller rating 4 out of 5 stars
Hardcover. Condition: Near Fine. Dust Jacket Condition: Very Good. Second Printing. 8vo. 581 pp. Publisher's quarter black cloth with blue paper boards lettered in gilt at spine. Light wear to spine-ends. Illustrated dust jacket. Small tears and creases along edges, light soiling and wear. Near Fine in Very Good jacket. Seller Inventory # 3114
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Life: A User's Manual (First U.S. Edition)
Published by
David R. Godine Publisher, Boston, 1987
ISBN 10: 0879237007
ISBN 13: 9780879237004
Used
Hardcover
First Edition
Seller: Dan Pope Books, West Hartford, CT, U.S.A.
Seller rating 5 out of 5 stars
Hardcover. Condition: Fine. Dust Jacket Condition: Near Fine. 1st Edition. First printing of the first U.S. edition. A near-fine copy in a near-fine jacket. A clean copy with price ($24.95) intact on front flap. Comes with archival-quality jacket protector. Note: Jacket has light fading on spine, a short closed tear on lower edge of front cover, and light rubbing. Note: Water staining on rear board (as pictured, on the rear jacket cover). Fiction-P. Seller Inventory # FLAHIVE-2229