A review by catdad77a45
Zazie in the Metro by Raymond Queneau

3.0

Not sure how I made it to my ripe old age with never having read Queneau's best known work, nor viewing Malle's iconic film made from the same ... but both were a mite disappointing - although this IS one of the rare cases when the film MIGHT be slightly better than the book. At least, I enjoyed Malle's visuals more than Queneau's verse, which even in such a short work got repetitious and tedious - and often incomprehensible. More clever than actually witty or LOL funny, Queneau's verbal pyrotechnics have been likened to Joyce, but I would say his anarchistic Punch & Judy-ish antics bear a much clearer debt to Alfred Jarry. And though I take all of Zazie's incessant questioning over Uncle Gabriel's alleged 'hormosessuality' (sic) as more or less a sign of the time in which it was written, it still slightly grates. Glad I finally read it, but have a feeling it will all be a blur within a week.

PS ... I can see how much the film was a direct influence on Jeunet in his "Amelie'...