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A review by ishasih
Flaubert's Parrot by Julian Barnes
5.0
Seductively original and clever story of an enigmatic narrator investigating the life and art of [a:Gustave Flaubert|1461|Gustave Flaubert|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1651461896p2/1461.jpg], as he travels to France on an absurd quest to find the stuffed parrot Flaubert kept on his desk for inspiration (re: [b:Un coeur simple|1424471|Un coeur simple|Gustave Flaubert|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1553597192l/1424471._SY75_.jpg|1822705]). In this process, the narrator reveals his own secrets, his own marriage to the adulteress he adored, in a witty weave of fact and fiction.
One of the central themes of this postmodern (?) novel (??) is subjectivism -- as the book (ah, there it is: book might just be the simplest word to describe it) explores the lives of its narrator and his subject in fifteen chapters which may be read out of order. Style is integral, even more so than plot -- what even is the plot here ? how best to describe the book ? It is a conversation which explores the nature of reading, writing, beauty and philosophy, prose and poetry, life and death, and the place of love in all this. And asking, of course, the important questions: 'Why does the writing make us chase the writer? Why can’t we leave well alone? Why aren’t the books enough?'
One of the central themes of this postmodern (?) novel (??) is subjectivism -- as the book (ah, there it is: book might just be the simplest word to describe it) explores the lives of its narrator and his subject in fifteen chapters which may be read out of order. Style is integral, even more so than plot -- what even is the plot here ? how best to describe the book ? It is a conversation which explores the nature of reading, writing, beauty and philosophy, prose and poetry, life and death, and the place of love in all this. And asking, of course, the important questions: 'Why does the writing make us chase the writer? Why can’t we leave well alone? Why aren’t the books enough?'