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A review by morinokaeru
Sphinx by Anne Garréta
4.0
Anne Garréta is part of the OuLiPo, a group of authors who give themselves restrictions as for the formal part of the book they write. So I was expecting something different, and Sphix was, in fact, something I had never read; the narrator and the other main character are not given a gender. Whenever there's a clue in the text that could give it away, it is immediately contradicted by another information that leads towards the opposide gender. It is quite amusing to try and figure out if "I" is a male or female, and if "A****", his/her partner is a woman or a man. It opens a lot of possibilities.
As for the story itself, it is a retrospective look on a particular moment in "I"'s life, which is his relationship with "A****". It is set in no particular time, mainly in Europe, but also in New York. The pace is slow, but not so much as to lose the reader's interest.
The main focus is put on the words used to tell the story, so the book is beautifully written. I would suggest, however, to read it in the original language, if possible, so that the beauty of it doesn't get lost in translation.
As for the story itself, it is a retrospective look on a particular moment in "I"'s life, which is his relationship with "A****". It is set in no particular time, mainly in Europe, but also in New York. The pace is slow, but not so much as to lose the reader's interest.
The main focus is put on the words used to tell the story, so the book is beautifully written. I would suggest, however, to read it in the original language, if possible, so that the beauty of it doesn't get lost in translation.