François Bon

I had never heard of Francois Bon before this title cropped up on the Librarything early review list but the subject matter and the description of the style grabbed my interest so I opted in and I am so glad I did. Hoe this writer has escaped me for so long is beyond me but I shall put it down to the fact that he is experimental and that he is French. His approach to the text is one that constantly tries to push at the expected, the traditional: the boring in short. In this text he contrives a form that is a sort of textual docudrama from number of clever literary devices. One can read this text and almost imagine the TV documentary that covers the closure of the Daewoo enterprise in France from the workers' perspective. I regularly found myself congratulating him on and smiling at the novelty of his use of forms to achieve his results: he is a master of the new form. Is it a novel? Is it a drama? Is it a documentary? Yes. yes and yes, but it is first and foremost a strong and vital text. It might herald a new future for some texts. In any case I recommend you find a copy and read it for the form and for the content because it is a tour de force.… (more)