seanwatson's review against another edition
2.0
pretty bad. i've read mathews the journalist, one of his later books, which i liked a lot. but the stuffy formalism and humour of the conversions hasn't aged well.
libromancy's review against another edition
3.0
Is The Conversions the book for you?
Would you relish stopping in the middle to unravel a page of code?
Can you read French?
Are you sure you don't suffer from a psychologically unfounded abhorrence to all things Scottish?
Are you such a fan of Oulipo that you want to read a book that even subjects its characters to a constant barrage of Oulipian constraints that they need to overcome?
Do you get a sick pleasure out of reading lists (and does that mean I'm turning you on right now)?
Do you want to know what 'recrudescence' means?
Do you enjoy Latin wordplay?
Does metafiction make you sigh with subverted pleasure like a Victorian heroine?
If you answered ‘yes’ to all of these questions, you can borrow my copy, as long as you promise not to get upset about the scrawled “WTF”s that I have all over the margins.
Would you relish stopping in the middle to unravel a page of code?
Can you read French?
Are you sure you don't suffer from a psychologically unfounded abhorrence to all things Scottish?
Are you such a fan of Oulipo that you want to read a book that even subjects its characters to a constant barrage of Oulipian constraints that they need to overcome?
Do you get a sick pleasure out of reading lists (and does that mean I'm turning you on right now)?
Do you want to know what 'recrudescence' means?
Do you enjoy Latin wordplay?
Does metafiction make you sigh with subverted pleasure like a Victorian heroine?
If you answered ‘yes’ to all of these questions, you can borrow my copy, as long as you promise not to get upset about the scrawled “WTF”s that I have all over the margins.
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