200728: brutal, benign, bewildering, beautiful (now i have to read Wittgenstein's Mistress...). as mentioned this is simple, declarative, easy to follow, at first has no particular organization- it is all one untitled paragraph. but as reading progresses what seem to be asides of no consequence, judgements, claims, assertions, begin to reveal the hidden nature of the author, his life, his work, his family, his friends and lovers, despite themselves. this is the most affecting work of fiction i have ever read built out of nothing but facts......more
201001: late late late note. have to explain why this is on favoritefiction ratherif you like this review, i now have website: www.michaelkamakana.com
201001: late late late note. have to explain why this is on favoritefiction rather than Pierrot mon ami. decided i would have only one book/author on that shelf and this is the one that came first in reading, i do not love everything by queneau but really enjoyed this one, need to read it again to write out why, but mainly i loved the way his dreams were fulfilled. comic, droll, beautiful......more
260219: late review. this is five. why. because it is fun. comic, droll, ironic, pif you like this review, i now have website: www.michaelkamakana.com
260219: late review. this is five. why. because it is fun. comic, droll, ironic, poetic, direct... simple plot concealing great structure revealed only on thought. not much happens and everything happens. pierrot (petey) is innocent, chaplinesque, the only one who knows/interacts with everyone, but this often seems only coincidental, irrelevant, incidental even as it unifies his adventures from which he as character learns nothing but we as readers learn everything. how to live, how to persist, how to laugh. pierrot is wise innocent as 'mon ami'......more
050719: there is an interesting point about how literal translation of the title ‘if you like this review, i now have website: www.michaelkamakana.com
050719: there is an interesting point about how literal translation of the title ‘les faites d’hivers’ sounds exactly like ‘les faites-divers’(diverting/titilating tales) which were little snippets of amusing and/or scandalous bits of gossipy news inserted in serious journalism of the 1880s in paris...
170119: i do not know if all the oulipo books will work for me, this does. blurring lines between history fiction nonfiction fantasy, this short book has both english and french texts opposite. so very fun way to see how much french you read. surprised me, as it has been years (decades...) since study at u. but the language is clear, grammar formal, words simple. dreams fantastic. afterward by author shows true oulipo work. and is not what ‘happened’ in our shared waking world in winter 1881 less ‘real’ than the dreams of those nights......more
120119: i am surprised at how ‘cute/heartwarming’ this work is. somehow i kept waiting for the text to turn perverse in that intellectual/avant-garde 120119: i am surprised at how ‘cute/heartwarming’ this work is. somehow i kept waiting for the text to turn perverse in that intellectual/avant-garde manner inevitably connected to de Sade. this is after all close psychological introspection (at each their ages) and so maybe there should be revelation of essentially dark undercurrents of childhood desires. but no. these are short short stories about very young provincial girls undergoing typical, ordinary, changing, not traumatic but curious events. this is recounted in the current age voice of the girl, contrasted with omniscient voice perhaps ironically recasting the moments... but in the nature of childhood, it is the imaginative, emotional, subjective world of each little girl that is ‘real’......more
190119: this is the only book on shelves i have found at u, so far, on oulipo. butif you like this review, i now have website: www.michaelkamakana.com
190119: this is the only book on shelves i have found at u, so far, on oulipo. but it alone has inspired me to read an entire sort i knew only through reputation and some Calvino. i never thought i would be again so excited by demonstrations of literary theory. it has been long years (decades...) since i maybe read much critical work at u, but if i look at the literature read a lot has been what may be avant-garde or ‘difficult’. being now on GR i look at many other bookshelves and realize my taste in literature has mostly been modern/postmodern and translation/genre and philosophy/art... this is a great start for this movement that may be declined or forgotten but then how would i know and who cares......more