Life: A User's Manual (1978)

Last night after I had finished reading this book, there still lingered a smile on my face. I had read last 100-ish pages in a rush. It was only after I finished reading and put the book down that I realized that I was going to miss this charming book.

After hearing out little anecdotes and life stories of a multitude of characters, after reliving moments of their lives through their stories, it is now time to say our goodbyes. I stand at the doorstep waving my hand and watching those figures shrink in the distance. I already miss them. Long after the last one of them has gone past the horizon, one would see me still leaning against the door-frame, lost in my thoughts and smiling to myself. Someone gently touches my shoulder and wakes me up from daydreams. I go back inside to get back to my daily responsibilities, but today it is somehow different. Today is different because I carry this refreshing and heartwarming feeling within me.

Now I am having a hard time figuring out what book to read after this while I go through a Perec withdrawal. I certainly don't want a book to punch me in the gut with its 'life is harsh' or 'the world and its people are going to the dogs' messages right now. Perec's Life is uplifting and pro-life. Perec daubs the canvas with uncountable shades, from humorous to heart-breaking. But he is never pessimistic. I wouldn't want its refreshing fragrance to fade away too fast.

The novel has been written following several constraints. But it in no way alienates the reader. The reader is warmly welcomed with open arms and made to feel at home. This book is best read slowly over a couple of weeks while savoring little moments and several lives you encounter through this. ( )

Em um momento congelado no tempo, Perec conta a história dos cem apartamentos de um prédio de Paris, com seus inquilinos e suas (fantásticas) listas de objetos.
Só a história de Bartlebooth, determinado a gastar toda a vida em um projeto aleatório e que se destruiria, valeria todo o livro. Quero ler mais livros de Perec. ( )

I ordered this novel from Amazon by virtue of its near unanimous five star review status. After having read the work in its entirety, I must admit to being somewhat mystified by the accolades showered upon it. Don’t get me wrong, I didn’t hate it or find it unreadable, but neither would I include it on my list of 500 greatest books either.

The book consists of many very short chapters, each such chapter taking as its theme a room or location in an apartment building in Paris. Each chapter begins with a detailed description of the furniture, the wall coverings, the floor coverings, fabrics, knick-knacks, curios, paintings, inhabitants, what they are wearing and what they had for lunch. These descriptions sometimes extend for pages at a time. One involved the entire contents of a pantry, describing each can of food, its color, cover design and contents. Really?

Periodically, after “setting the stage”, a fascinating story ensues. Sometimes it doesn’t. Over the course of the novel, many of the key players are reintroduced, but it may be difficult to remember a minor character introduced 75 pages ago in a four page chapter. One reviewer confessed to keeping a notebook in order to remember the characters. I didn’t keep a notebook, hence my failure to maintain any continuity with some of the inhabitants of the building.

There are many fine and well told tales contained in this novel, however, the sometimes mind numbing level of descriptive detail, which make up a significant portion of the book, dilutes the effect of the tales, both with respect to the word count as well as the impact of the prose.

If forced to read every word of this novel, I would likely have ditched it mid-way through. However, the paragraphs of seemingly never ending picayune descriptions are easily identified and usually occur at the beginning of each chapter. When confronted with three paragraphs of detailed descriptions of every carving contained in a curio case, I simply scanned forward to the conclusion of the exercise and was often rewarded with captivating reading for the remainder of the chapter. Again, sometimes not.

I feel the need to point out that I am not by nature a contrarian. I don’t seek out universally well beloved works and trash them as a matter of course. However, I cannot, for the life of me, imagine what it is about this collection of minutia that has garnered such near unanimous accolades. ( )

Olin PQ2676.E66 V6 1987

Oh my god, can I give this 6 stars? how about 9? Heck, I'll give it 11.

What an amazing book. It's like a Bruegel painting with every character and every character's back-story and every character's mother's back-story (and etc) described, lovingly, wonderfully, fully. It's practically the entire world described, every story told, and retold, obsessively, necessarily (yes, I'm referencing my own review of Marías's A Heart So White, and there's a reason [1])...

In fact it's been 3 months since I started reading it. It took me this long because I practically read it 3 times. I'd read 100 pages, and then re-read them. Then another 100, and re-read those. I wanted to be stuck in this world. I wanted to be lost in this labyrinth of lunacy and obsession (and repeating images). I didn't want it to end, I didn't want to solve the puzzle, I just wanted to map it (in fact, I kept a notebook), and be in it (I even bought the original [2]).

But, as they say, all good things must come to and end... or do they?

The stories are always there, there in the book, and here, in real life (what's the difference?): as I was reading the book, Roman Opalka died, an artist straight out of the book practically, painting his numbers since 1965, right up until infinity (his death); at the Pompidou in Metz, France, an exhibit called "ERRE, variations labyrinthiques", and one Didier Beaufort, who traveled 20000 km in South America to follow the sun so that it was always perpendicular to where he was; [insert your story here]

[1] The story of Cyrille Altamont and Blanche Gardel in London reminded me of Marías's Tomorrow in the Battle Think On Me. Of course the stories are meant to remind you of other stories: "slightly modified citations from the following authors have been inserted into this book" Perec tells us at the end. So we see that the story-continuum goes backward and forward (and probably up and down too...)

[2] The Italian translation I have is, while not terrible, not exactly great either (I may post an update with the most egregious errors). But I think this book is so strong that even a translator deliberately trying to betray the work would fail. My french isn't good enough for me to be able to read it on its own, but after having already read and reread the Italian version, I can understand a good bit of it. And getting the original pieces of the puzzle is definitely worth it...

Update 1: I was also reminded of Bolaño's 2666 at times. All part of the continuum, all part of the continuum... ( )