Georges Perec was a French novelist, filmmaker, and essayist, celebrated for his playful engagement with language and structure. A member of the Oulipo group, his works often feature experimental wordplay, lists, and attempts at classification, frequently imbued with a sense of melancholy. Perec's writing is characterized by formal constraints, such as a novel written entirely without the letter 'e', which can serve as a powerful metaphor for his Jewish experience during World War II. He explored themes of memory, loss, and identity, often weaving fiction with autobiographical elements to illuminate the complexities of human existence.
Through lyrical prose and reflective inventories, the narrative captures the experiences of sixteen million immigrants who arrived in America between 1890 and 1954. Drawing on his own tragic past, Perec explores themes of chance, exile, and identity, portraying Ellis Island as a symbol of displacement and longing for belonging. This work stands out as a poignant meditation on the immigrant experience, highlighting the struggles against intolerance and poverty that drive individuals from their homelands.
A slim volume featuring Georges Perec's writings on the simple task of arranging books and what it can reveal about lifeOne of the most singular and extravagant imaginations of the twentieth century, the novelist and essayist Georges Perec was a true original who delighted in wordplay, puzzles, taxonomies and seeing the extraordinary in the everyday. In these virtuoso writings about books and language, he discusses different ways of reading, a list of the things he really must do before he dies and the power of words to overcome the chaos of the world.Throughout history, some books have changed the world. They have transformed the way we see ourselves - and each other. They have inspired debate, dissent, war and revolution. They have enlightened, outraged, provoked and comforted. They have enriched lives--and upended them. Now Penguin brings you a new set of the acclaimed Great Ideas, a curated library of selections from the works of the great thinkers, pioneers, radicals and visionaries whose ideas shook civilization and helped make us who we are.
A hilarious and inventive office-drone odyssey. - Bookforum Its wit and comedy
encourage compulsive consumption. -David O'Neill, Barnes and Noble Review We
readers will have to deal with the fortunate burden of clearing shelf-space
for another novel by Perec this spring, with the first English translation of
The Art of Asking Your Boss for a Raise . -Most Anticipated Books of 2011, The
Millions As a witty indictment of corporate culture and an artifact from one
of the 20th century's most bizarre literary movements, The Art of Asking Your
Boss for a Raise -as with all the works of Georges Perec-is a puzzle too
absurd not to explore ... [it] will interest any reader who has ever worked in
a large bureaucracy and considered himself underpaid. -James K. McAuley,
Harvard Crimson Perec's novels are games, each different. They are played for
real stakes and in some cases breathtakingly large ones. As games should be,
and as literary games often are not, they are fun. - Los Angeles Times We defy
you to walk by this book and not pick it up. Perfectly packaged and
immediately intriguing! - A Largehearted WORD Book of the Week A brilliant ...
conceptual, comedic novella from the writer who wrote the postmodern
masterpiece Life: A User's Manual . - City Arts An acute and penetrating
vision of the world of office work. - Arthur Perec's knack for absurdity and
circumlocution ensures that each iteration is novel and urgent. - Full Stop
[A] fun read for someone who enjoys computer programming and corporate irony,
and would make a perfect gift for the office mate with a good sense of humor.
- bestdamncreativewritingblog [A] terribly compelling work, one that does a
great deal with very little. With his use of repetition, which also evokes a
pre-set mechanism, Perec establishes a rhythm of sorts, while his subtle
deviations from the pattern serve as moments of dark comedy. - Slant Magazine
Certainly something different, and quite enjoyable. - Complete Review
Set in a tropical French colony, the narrative follows a teacher on a quest to find the missing crime-writer Robert Serval. As he delves into Serval's unfinished manuscript, he uncovers potential clues that could explain the writer's mysterious disappearance. This work showcases Perec's unique literary style and invites readers into a complex puzzle intertwined with themes of mystery and the creative process.
'Perec is serious fun' The Guardian Both an affectionate portrait of mid-century Paris and a daring memoir, Georges Perec's I Remember is now available in English to UK readers for the first time, with an introduction by David Bellos. In 480 numbered statements, all beginning identically with 'I remember', Perec records a stream of individual memories of a childhood in post-war France, while posing wider questions about memory and nostalgia. As playful and puzzling as the best of his novels, I Remember is an ode to life: the ordinary, the extraordinary, and the sometimes trivial, as seen through the eyes of the irreplaceable Georges Perec.
The Oulipo's members have included luminaries of the calibre of Italo Calvino, Marcel Duchamp and Georges Perec. In 1979 Georges Perec wrote a brief entertainment for a publisher's catalogue: The Winter Journey. It became his most reprinted text, and revealed an extraordinary literary discovery, a secret concealed at the heart of modern French literature. Following Perec's death, the group began writing sequels to this tale, and gradually this became a sort of initiation to the group: new members were encouraged to write a Winter Journey'. And so a loose narrative was born.'
Things: A Story of the Sixties is the story of a young couple who want to
enjoy life, but the only way they know how to do so is through ownership of
'things'.In A Man Asleep, a young student embarks upon a disturbing and
exhaustive pursuit of indifference, following his experience in non-existence
with relentless logic.
