George Perec - A Life In Words

Bellos, David

ISBN 10: 0002720221 / ISBN 13: 9780002720229

Published by Harvill, 1993

Cloth, dj, F/VG+. xxx+802pp, 32pp b/w plates showing 49 images, 42 b/w text illustrations & maps, index, a fine copy in a slightly edge bumped dustjacket. A biography of Georges Perec [ 1936 - 1982 ] the French novelist, who was a member of the Oulipo group. Many of his works deal with absence, loss, and identity, often through word play. 1525 grams. Seller Inventory # 63333

Synopsis:

George Perec is the author of "Life A User's Manual". This aims to provide a comprehensive biography including a full survey of Perec's varied oeuvre, portraying an anguished, comical and ordinary man. The story begins in Eastern Europe before World War I and reaches its penultimate chapter in Australia, where Perec began drafting his last work, the thriller, "53 Days". The pearl trade, the occupation of France, the shoah, the rise and fall of the intellectual post-war France, art history, forgery, travels to Yugoslavia, Tunisia, Italy and Scotland, the Algerian War, neurophysiology, the book business and the radio, television and cinema industries provide the varied backdrops to a life rooted in historical change.

Review: Georges Perec was one of the finest writers of the 20th century and yet his work remains relatively obscure. He is probably best known for Life: A User's Manual a book he dedicated to his fellow avant- gardist Raymond Queneau (who, along with Harry Matthews, Italo Calvino, Perec and others, was a member of OuLiPo-- an important group of experimental writers and mathematicians). He wrote the wonderful lipogram A Void a book in which the letter "e" never appears and the world's longest palindrome (in the form of a two-and-a- half page story.) He is seen by many as a true literary genius. Bellos traces the sadness behind Perec's prodigious wordplay, his confused and tragic lineage (including his mother's demise in the death camps), his entry on to the literary scene with the anti-materialist Things, his Jewish (non-)identity. Without Bellos's translations Perec would probably have remained unknown outside of France. Without this readable, compelling, exhaustive biography his often autobiographical, highly structured fiction would be far less approachable. Georges Perec: a Life in Words is a fitting testimony to a writer we should all know better. --Mark Thwaite

Bibliographic Details

Title: George Perec - A Life In Words
Publisher: Harvill
Publication Date: 1993
Binding: Hardcover
Condition: Very Good
Dust Jacket Condition: Dust Jacket Included
Edition: 1st edition.