Insomniac Anton Vowl is missing from his Paris rooms, and his companions look for information in his diary, in a work using no "e".
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A true tour de force: a full-length novel containing not a single 'E'. An entertaining post-modern detective story...dazzling... the translator's dazzling recreation conveys the author's near magical cleverness while preserving an underlying seriousness that makes this book much more than a curiosity (New Yorker )
Adair's translation is an astounding Anglicisation of Francophonic mania, a daunting triumph of will pushing its way through imposing roadblocks to a magical country, an absurdist nirvana, of humour, pathos and loss (Time ) --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.
Adair's translation is an astounding Anglicisation of Francophonic mania, a daunting triumph of will pushing its way through imposing roadblocks to a magical country, an absurdist nirvana, of humour, pathos and loss (Time ) --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.
Book Description
'There is not a single E in this novel. That's right: no here, there, where, when; no yes, no love, no sex!' New York Times Book Review
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
25 of 25 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Okay, the temptation here is to write a lipogrammatical review, but to be honest - much as I enjoyed the examples below - there is probably a need for a few "straight" reviews as well, to let everyone know what an extraordinary book this is.
A novel of more than 300 pages without the letter "E" is already impressive just as an intellectual feat, in sheer Guinness-book-of-records, well-fancy-that terms. It's hard enough in French, but arguably even harder in English, so full marks to Gilbert Adair for his black-belt skills in translation. (Think about it a moment: no "the"; no "he", "she", "we" or "they".)
However, while this is always a witty book and occasionally an overtly funny one (Perec's E-free translations of Hamlet's soliloquy and Edgar Allan Poe's "The Raven" are hilarious), this is a serious book, full of Perec's usual combination of gentle melancholy with serious philosophical questions.
Anton Vowl and his chums, representing the six vowels (with "Y" included) and disappearing one by one in bizarre and mysterious circumstances, know something is missing from their lives but can't figure what; indeed generally fail to make sense of their world. What does the missing "e" represent? What is our own missing "e"?
And isn't it scary how quickly, reading this book, we get used to the absence of something as commonplace as the most frequently used letter in the alphabet? (A possible metaphor for Europe after the Holocaust, or the like?)
Like all Perec, "A Void" is serious fun, but ultimately decidedly unsettling. He certainly makes you appreciate the simple things in life. Eeeeeeeeeeeeee!
A novel of more than 300 pages without the letter "E" is already impressive just as an intellectual feat, in sheer Guinness-book-of-records, well-fancy-that terms. It's hard enough in French, but arguably even harder in English, so full marks to Gilbert Adair for his black-belt skills in translation. (Think about it a moment: no "the"; no "he", "she", "we" or "they".)
However, while this is always a witty book and occasionally an overtly funny one (Perec's E-free translations of Hamlet's soliloquy and Edgar Allan Poe's "The Raven" are hilarious), this is a serious book, full of Perec's usual combination of gentle melancholy with serious philosophical questions.
Anton Vowl and his chums, representing the six vowels (with "Y" included) and disappearing one by one in bizarre and mysterious circumstances, know something is missing from their lives but can't figure what; indeed generally fail to make sense of their world. What does the missing "e" represent? What is our own missing "e"?
And isn't it scary how quickly, reading this book, we get used to the absence of something as commonplace as the most frequently used letter in the alphabet? (A possible metaphor for Europe after the Holocaust, or the like?)
Like all Perec, "A Void" is serious fun, but ultimately decidedly unsettling. He certainly makes you appreciate the simple things in life. Eeeeeeeeeeeeee!
29 of 30 people found the following review helpful
By A Customer
Format:Paperback
This is an ambitious book by anybody's standards. A brilliant translation by Adair - not that I know any Francais - but obviously a major task to accomplish without using that particular symbol and still maintain a lyrical flow throughout. It has a fantastical plot, as if from a Salvador Dali painting, but this story's main conundrum (viz. what is missing) is told to us prior to starting - which spoils it slightly. My only additional criticism is that it is difficult to follow at points and occasionally hard going.
Still, indubitably worth four stars.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
By RachelWalker
TOP 500 REVIEWER
Format:Paperback
Remarkable! Though it is a more an intellectual exercise than an intelligible work of fiction (though, of course it *is* an intelligible work of fiction, otherwise the exercise would render itself pointless), a Void is delightful and delightfully clever experience. It strains credibility, credulity, and sometimes, through its oft-necessarily torturous syntax and plotting that internally reflects the conceit of a novel written with a vital piece missing, though concomitant then with an inability to mention it, but it's still fun throughout, often hilarious, and a very rewarding book to have read. Philosophical, full of big plots and little, it's a difficult read but a worthwhile one. Oh yes!
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
4.0 out of 5 stars
If you don't stop that you'll go blind
A giant novel about absence, invisibility and that old chestnut the (E)lephant in the room. Hugely ambitious and very much an Achievement, the book demands a lot from its reader on... Read more
Published on 21 May 2010 by Quackser
5.0 out of 5 stars
This you should study, ask not why
This significant book, who's linguistically cunning author calls for no introduction, strains against a troublingly unjust handicap... in fact, two. Read more
Published on 7 Nov 2008 by Critch
5.0 out of 5 stars
This you should study, ask not why
This significant book, who's linguistically cunning author calls for no introduction, strains against a troublingly unjust handicap... in fact, two. Read more
Published on 7 Nov 2008 by Critch
5.0 out of 5 stars
Awesome !
I read this book years ago, after it was mentioned in an editorial of a magazine I was reading. Totally intregued, I went straight out and bought it. Read it. Read more
Published on 2 Sep 2008 by J. Pickering
5.0 out of 5 stars
An amusing floccinaucinihilipilification
Random thoughts on first coming into contact with this book:
1. Which imp is disposing of a particular mark throughout this folio?
2. Read more
1. Which imp is disposing of a particular mark throughout this folio?
2. Read more
Published on 14 Aug 2008 by JAMES MACKAY
4.0 out of 5 stars
The plot twists are as unusual as the writing style
As a group of aquaintances try to discover the truth behind the dissapearance of their mutual friend they uncover a plot worthy of any detective novel. Read more
Published on 23 Aug 2001 by zeroc@deadroads.fsnet.co.uk
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