Reviews

An Attempt at Exhausting a Place in Paris by Georges Perec

sunscanid's review

Go to review page

funny reflective medium-paced

4.25

an interesting read. i enjoyed the afterword quite a lot. my copy was secondhand, already annotated, which i believe made me enjoy this more

lilchameleon's review against another edition

Go to review page

funny reflective fast-paced

4.0

aeverett's review

Go to review page

informative slow-paced

2.0

charlesrop's review

Go to review page

5.0

1) He sit in cafe.
2) He write everything he see.
3) That's it.

_mjmp_'s review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous challenging funny informative reflective relaxing fast-paced

4.0

nasathespaceship's review

Go to review page

3.0

Quiet and passive beauty

youngluteplayer's review

Go to review page

reflective relaxing slow-paced

3.5

sendlasagna's review

Go to review page

2.0

The first story I published was like this, with a smidgen more of plot. This feels like Literature, the experiments of the writer's salon sound cool tho, like the book without the letter 'e'. Reads like a man too. 

dajna's review against another edition

Go to review page

2.0

Non avevo capito esattamente a cosa sarei andata incontro. Forse nel 1975 era un esercizio originale, ma oggi non l'ho trovato così interessante, seppure mi è piaciuto fare il voyeur con Perec. Diciamo che mi è sembrato di leggere un capitolo, un estratto di un libro, e non un'opera indipendente. Però non è spiacevole, visto anche la brevità del libro.

jon_eb's review

Go to review page

informative

3.0

Decided to go with a short Perec in preparation for my read of Life later this year, widely regarded as his masterpiece. An Attempt At Exhausting a Place in Paris is Perec's approach at capturing the overlooked in the everyday or rather what he called the 'Infraordinary". He decided to camp by a cafe window for three days between 10am and 5pm, and to record everything that crossed his field of vision; the occasional street buses, passerbys, children holding balloons, pigeons who visits the same spot everyday. While the book mostly consists of an occasional one or two line remark on things, it still wonderfully highlights the workings of Perec's mind, and is a foray into understanding the mind and the affinities of this brilliant brilliant writer.