Jean Ricardou

Place Names proves to be oh so Dalkey -- too cool for school, by far. The novel is immensely French and is a layered masterpiece of games, repetitions and metaphors. Ricardou's erudition reaches into history and plumbs entomology and geometry to keep the reader honest. Acting as an opposition between the guide book and the novel, the narrative slinks off the established paths, offering as a tithe both vistas of beauty and a knotted enigma which conceals madness and worse. No spoilers here, show more but Place Names certainly merits a peek, a prone position is recommended, please bring your own magnifying glass. show less

It's hard not to like the premise of this nouveau roman: a playful philosophical inquiry into Saussurean linguistics, a travel guide, an obsessive catalog of gestures, a discourse on ants and a whodunit about art (though the "who," the "done," and the "it" are all in question, one might say) all in one slim volume. But there's not much depth to all this cleverness; in the end it seems all structural tomfoolery.