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Yesterday’s afternoon mail brought with it two Georges Perec books that Godine just brought out: a new edition of Life A User’s Manual<\/em><\/a> and Thoughts of Sorts<\/em>,<\/a> a collection of essays published posthumously in France in 1985. And which, according to the jacket copy, “completes the Godine list of Perec’s great works translated into English.” <\/p>\n The other Perec books available from Godine are:<\/p>\n W of the Memory of Childhood<\/em><\/a> This really is the summer of Perec—in addition to the Godine books, the spring issue of the Review of Contemporary Fiction<\/em><\/a> is dedicated to Perec and includes pieces by Harry Mathews, David Bellos, Marcel Benabou, and Jacques Roubaud, along with a few pieces by Perec himself (“Statement of Intent,” “The Machine,” “The Doing of Fiction,” and “Commitment or the Crisis of Language”).<\/p>\n Perec’s a long-time favorite of mine. I came to him via Raymond Queneau and an obsession with the Oulipo.<\/a> In face, Perec’s A Void<\/em>, a lipogram novel that excludes the letter E, is probably the most famous example of an Oulipian constraint. Although the constraints governing Life<\/em> (see this helpful Wikipedia page<\/a> for some details, although the Oulipo Compendium<\/em> has a much more detailed analysis involving the “knight’s move” and the clinamen) are much more complex and, in my opinion, resulted in a richer, more fulfilling book. <\/p>\n I’m definitely going to reread Life<\/em> at some point this fall (I can see myself going on a Perec bender at some point . . . some point after the Best Translated Book stuff is over that is), and hopefully will write a much longer, more in depth post about the novel. In the meantime, we already have one excellent review of Life<\/em> on the website: Bob Williams wrote this piece<\/a> for us back some time ago. And equally as interesting as the review itself are these two Flickr pages that Sam Golden Rule<\/a> Jones posted in the comments section. This one<\/a> is Perec’s map of the apartment building in the book, and this one<\/a> is Gabriel Josipovici’s enhanced version.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/College\/translation\/threepercent\/images\/323.jpg\")
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\nThings: A Story of the Sixties & A Man Asleep<\/em><\/a>
\n‘53 Days’<\/em><\/a>
\nThree by Perec<\/em><\/a>
\nand _ A Void_<\/a><\/p>\n
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