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A review by adam613
Sphinx by Anne Garréta
4.0
"I was captivated by the idea of a struggle with no stakes other than my own satisfaction. I was experimenting without any restrictions, embarking upon the basics of a new language that no one had taught me; I was the master and the student, but the apprenticeship of this new science was not a form of autodidacticism. Rather, I was discovering rules as I went along, establishing what had always existed without any basic precepts. Each night I was giving a speech in this unknown, unformulated language, unaware that I was deviating from a specific practice that so many others had followed before me."
"Had I ever been capable of loving without suffering? And what was I suffering from, exactly?"
The Oulipo is a loosely associated group of French writers and mathematicians that seek out new potentials for literature using constrained writing techniques. What makes Anne Garréta's work so unique is the absence of pronouns to describe A***, the object of the narrator's affection and exploring this innovative method makes Shinx a memorable feminist, LGBT/queer piece of literature with many universal themes. What this does is leave plenty of room for the reader to form their own image of A*** and play with the language we've grown more than attached to.
"Back then my strategy was to lose myself in order to find myself, which today I understand to be a mysticism; however, I had been deluding myself for so long that once I finally came to that realization, my life had already dissolved into waiting vainly for a death that was equally vain."
Written in 1986, and translated to English for the first time in 2015, Sphinx is the tale of the life of a relationship that starts in the clubs and cabarets of after-hours Paris. In the second half of this book, Anne Garréta crushed my soul and left me feeling all sorts of existential dread over concerns of the heart of the narrator as well as my own. Constructing ephemeral passages, Sphinx sliced me open with the narrator's vulnerability and writing prowess of beautifully crafted prose. Don't let the idea of experimental literature throw you off, Sphinx is accessible and its bursts of ecstasy and bouts of melancholy will leave you shattered and left to pick up the pieces.
"I am assailed by indifference. I had thought that I would never be able to grow tired of loving, but one night I woke to an absence of love and felt no torture: it was the absence of this torture that truly scared me, that tortured me."
"Had I ever been capable of loving without suffering? And what was I suffering from, exactly?"
The Oulipo is a loosely associated group of French writers and mathematicians that seek out new potentials for literature using constrained writing techniques. What makes Anne Garréta's work so unique is the absence of pronouns to describe A***, the object of the narrator's affection and exploring this innovative method makes Shinx a memorable feminist, LGBT/queer piece of literature with many universal themes. What this does is leave plenty of room for the reader to form their own image of A*** and play with the language we've grown more than attached to.
"Back then my strategy was to lose myself in order to find myself, which today I understand to be a mysticism; however, I had been deluding myself for so long that once I finally came to that realization, my life had already dissolved into waiting vainly for a death that was equally vain."
Written in 1986, and translated to English for the first time in 2015, Sphinx is the tale of the life of a relationship that starts in the clubs and cabarets of after-hours Paris. In the second half of this book, Anne Garréta crushed my soul and left me feeling all sorts of existential dread over concerns of the heart of the narrator as well as my own. Constructing ephemeral passages, Sphinx sliced me open with the narrator's vulnerability and writing prowess of beautifully crafted prose. Don't let the idea of experimental literature throw you off, Sphinx is accessible and its bursts of ecstasy and bouts of melancholy will leave you shattered and left to pick up the pieces.
"I am assailed by indifference. I had thought that I would never be able to grow tired of loving, but one night I woke to an absence of love and felt no torture: it was the absence of this torture that truly scared me, that tortured me."