Reviews

W or the Memory of Childhood by Georges Perec

octanexit's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

felix_gif's review

4.0

Imagine if society was run like PE class
Perec describes this society and in doing so fills in the voids in his childhood left by the holocaust

sarah_dietrich's review against another edition

2.0

I see what Perec is doing here, but I'm not convinced. The parallel threads of Perec's childhood memories and his imagined dystopian Olympiad society highlight the evils of the war machine, and it's all just too on the nose for me. You can see where it's going right from the start and then it gets to the point of

Spoiler

rape as sport

and I was rolling my eyes. Perec says some interesting things about memory, but ultimately this was a letdown for me.

obsessioncollector's review against another edition

mysterious reflective

4.5

"There’s no recourse, no mercy, no salvation to be had from anyone. There’s not even any hope that time will sort things out. There’s this, there’s what you’ve seen, and now and again it will be less horrible than what you’ve seen and now and again it will be much more horrible than what you’ve seen. But wherever you turn your eyes, that’s what you will see, you will not see anything else, and that is the only thing that will turn out to be true."

chad_vinny's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious reflective

4.25

sroel2's review against another edition

dark tense medium-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Rape and Violence

fallinh's review

challenging slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? N/A
• Strong character development? N/A
• Loveable characters? N/A
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A

5.0

"the things that were, the things that stopped, the things that were closed off - things that surely were and today are no longer, but things that also were so that I may still be."

might be one of the most accessible Perec and it's still challenging af
reread, the shock value has gone but the horror remains still

sgrady's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? N/A
• Loveable characters? N/A
• Diverse cast of characters? N/A
• Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A

5.0

lauraviivi's review against another edition

2.0

Meh. Not a big fan of Perec.

melissardv's review against another edition

3.0

Autobio, sur le travail d'écriture de soi, les camps de concentration et le "sport"