Reviews

Things: A Story of the Sixties and a Man Asleep by Georges Perec

sulabooknerd's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

charliemandar's review against another edition

challenging reflective slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.0

catherinebergeron34's review against another edition

reflective sad slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

nicovivi's review against another edition

dark funny informative inspiring reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

deborah9830's review against another edition

2.0

Mah, bella idea ma troppe descrizioni... I punti di forza sono la parte seconda e l'epilogo che danno un po' il senso del tutto

fatma_ahli's review against another edition

1.0

الكتاب ممل ممل ممل.. ما قدرت أكمله من كثر ما هو ممل ..

أنصح بالكتاب فقط إذا الواحد يعاني من الأرق!

hcube3's review against another edition

challenging mysterious reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

ariadne42's review

challenging funny reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

cbendixe's review

2.0

The first novel in this book, Things: A Story of the Sixties, outlines a 20-something couple in 1960s Paris. They are incredibly materialistic, and the only interesting thing that they really do in the whole book is decide to temporarily move to Tunisia. Which of course they hate. I wish something else of note had happened, because these two characters were pretty crazy (in an interesting way).

I did not finish the second novel, A Man Asleep. The first half describes a college (or maybe grad school?) student's descent into depression. But there is apparently no reason for how the depression comes about, and chemical assistance is never discussed (not that it's always effective, but it might have made this guy more...I don't know, interesting? I know I've used that word too much already in this review, but I'm at a loss--I was really uninterested in this book).

I know there is a lot more to these philosophical novels, and I'm sure that I missed a lot. But for now I'm going to lay off of French novels.

_carlibri_'s review against another edition

4.0

L'attualità di questo libro è disarmante.
Ed è disarmante sapere anche che è un esordio.
Molto interessante è la prefazione di Andrea Canobbio, che spiega le influenze del Barthes di Miti d'oggi e del Flaubert de L'educazione sentimentale, due testi che mi è venuta voglia di leggere e che, fortunatamente, ho già in libreria.
Il volume non è neanche da considerarsi un vero e proprio romanzo: infatti, molti critici lo hanno contrassegnato come testo sociologico.
E a ragione.
In generale, ho apprezzato tantissimo il pensiero di Perec, il suo modo di leggere il mondo in cui viveva e in cui viviamo. In questo caso, indagando l'attaccamento alle cose, il desiderio viscerale di essere ricchi senza sforzo, il perenne senso di insoddisfazione che caratterizza i due protagonisti, e un po' anche tutti noi.
Chapeau.