| Author |
Message |
mjp
Username: mjp
Registered: 10-2006
| | Posted on Wednesday, February 20, 2008 - 9:21 am: | |
Obituaries in the Independent and Guardian.
He was a kind of French Christopher Priest but a great deal more literary and at least in his early novels wrote very sharp prose. |
martin
Username: martin
Registered: 10-2006
| | Posted on Wednesday, February 20, 2008 - 9:42 am: | |
Hi, MJP - never read him. What do you recommend to a rank beginner? |
mjp
Username: mjp
Registered: 10-2006
| | Posted on Wednesday, February 20, 2008 - 10:03 am: | |
I would start at the beginning, with Les Gommes (The Erasers) and Jelousy, In the Labyrinth, The Voyeur, right up to Djinn.
The most recent, Repetition, is a verbose rusty rehash of old themes. Also I would avoid the autobiographical work, starting with Ghost in the Mirror. It is in the earlier fiction that he does his strange thing; that he is haunting and utterly strange.
A connected author here is Marguerite Duras, whose War Diaries have just been published. Two truly great post war French authors. |
alex
Username: alex
Registered: 10-2006
| | Posted on Wednesday, February 20, 2008 - 12:18 pm: | |
I've never read him, but I think I've eaten some. |
martin
Username: martin
Registered: 10-2006
| | Posted on Wednesday, February 20, 2008 - 1:42 pm: | |
"Toasted dressing-gown, innee?"
MJP: Many thanks! |
al
Username: al
Registered: 11-2006
| | Posted on Wednesday, February 20, 2008 - 4:39 pm: | |
Looks intriguing... |