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Life

A User's Manual
By Georges Perec
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4.18 goodreads logo

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Check link for latest rating. ( 9,939 ratings, 1,054 reviews)
Book Hero Magic crafted this summary to help describe this book. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! Summary
In Life by Georges Perec, the story unfolds within a Parisian apartment building, revealing the intricate lives of its diverse residents. Through a unique narrative technique, Perec explores themes of absence, presence, and human experience. The book’s unconventional structure offers a detailed depiction of daily life, encouraging readers to observe the ordinary with fresh eyes.
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Format: Paperback / softback
$2400
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Book Hero Magic created this recommendation. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! IS THIS YOUR NEXT READ?

You might enjoy this book if you appreciate intricate narratives and playful experimentation with literary form. Georges Perec delves into the complexities of everyday life, weaving together a tapestry of characters and stories that reveal both the mundane and the profound in human existence. It's a rich exploration of life that challenges traditional storytelling and captivates curious readers.

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Chapter by chapter, the narrative moves around the building revealing a marvellously diverse cast of characters in a series of every more unlikely tales, which range from an avenging murderer to an eccentric English millionaire who has devised the ultimate pastime...

'The last major event in the history of the novel' Italo Calvino

Book Hero Magic formatted this description to make it easier to read. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! Description

One of the most dazzling and ingeniously contrived works of twentieth-century fiction, an entire microcosm is brought to life in a Paris apartment block. Serge Valene, one of the inhabitants, has conceived the idea of a painting that will show in exact detail the inside of each apartment within the building—every person, every object.

As he thinks of his picture, he contemplates the lives of all the people he has ever known or heard about in sixty years living there. Chapter by chapter, room by room, the narrative moves around the building, revealing a marvellously diverse cast of characters in a series of ever more unlikely tales, ranging from an avenging murderer to an eccentric English millionaire who has devised the ultimate pastime.

Life by Georges Perec is a masterful work of imagination, weaving together an intricate tapestry of human stories and experiences.

Book Hero Magic summarised reviews for this book. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! HOW HAS THIS BEEN REVIEWED?

Georges Perec's Life is hailed as a masterpiece, celebrated for its inventive and ambitious portrayal of life in its entirety. It is admired for its daunting yet ingenious approach, reminiscent of literary giants like James Joyce. Critics praise the novel's emotional depth, noting its blend of humour and sadness, and consider it a treasure trove of narratives comparable to the works of Rabelais, Chaucer, and Sterne.

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Book Details

INFORMATION

ISBN: 9780099449256

Publisher: Vintage Publishing

Format: Paperback / softback

Date Published: 20 May 1996

Country: United Kingdom

Imprint: Vintage Classics

Contributors:

  • Translated by David Bellos

Audience: General / adult

DIMENSIONS

Spine width: 38.0mm

Width: 129.0mm

Height: 198.0mm

Weight: 421g

Pages: 608

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About the Author

Georges Perec (1936-82) won the Prix Renaudot in 1965 for his first novel Things- A Story of the Sixties, and went on to exercise his unrivalled mastery of language in almost every imaginable kind of writing, from the apparently trivial to the deeply personal. He composed acrostics, anagrams, autobiography, criticism, crosswords, descriptions of dreams, film scripts, heterograms, lipograms, memories, palindromes, plays, poetry, radio plays, recipes, riddles, stories short and long, travel notes, univocalics, and, of course, novels. Life- A User's Manual, which draws on many of Perec's other works, appeared in 1978 after nine years in the making and was acclaimed a masterpiece to put beside Joyce's Ulysses. It won the Prix Medicis and established Perec's international reputation.

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