A review by thecommonswings
Zazie in the Metro by Raymond Queneau

5.0

A freewheeling, madcap work of subversive brilliance. I’ve not seen the film but the book most reminds me of Rivette’s masterpiece, Celine and Julie Go Boating in as much as there’s a thriller/ caper element to it that the book quickly bores of and decides to send up. It’s beautifully written and has as much fun tearing up language (as with Exercises In Style, Barbara Wright deserves a medal for this) as it does plot conventions. At times you think “is all this through Zazie’s eyes?”, especially the chameleon like “chap” and the “gunning down” of Widow Mouaque, but that is still too literal for what I think Queneau is doing here: basically writing a joyous, incredibly accessible and utterly impossible to keep track of novel that intends on every level to confound your expectations. It’s high farce, it’s joy in language, it’s satire and parody, it’s incredibly touching, it’s all a huge game: and it’s one of the most absolutely joyous books I can ever remember reading