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A review by helgamharb
Things: A Story of the Sixties and a Man Asleep by Georges Perec
3.0
This was extremely bleak! Do not read if you are depressed or remotely bored with your life.
-Things ***
Jérôme and Sylvie were the "new generation" and they loved wealth before they loved life. But after owning everything and surrounding themselves with belongings, they became paralyzed by the immensity of their desires. They thought they were suffocating.
The enemy was unseen. Or, rather, the enemy was within them, it had rotted them, infected them, eaten them away. They were the hollow men, the turkey round the stuffing. Tame pets, faithfully reflecting a world which taunted them. They were up to their necks in a cream cake from which they would only ever be able to nibble crumbs.
And so, they decide to leave everything and travel… but then, guess what? They get bored with their newly found freedom and come back and try to copy their previous style of living.
I can summarize this book in a sentence and excuse my French: C'est la vie!
-A Man Asleep ***
Man sitting on a narrow bed… a book open on his knees, eyes vacant…
He has no desire to carry on, no desire to defend himself, no desire to attack…he is waiting for nothing.
He is a young student who has become indifferent towards everything; towards life, and in a sense is asleep.
The story is told in second person narrative.
-Things ***
Jérôme and Sylvie were the "new generation" and they loved wealth before they loved life. But after owning everything and surrounding themselves with belongings, they became paralyzed by the immensity of their desires. They thought they were suffocating.
The enemy was unseen. Or, rather, the enemy was within them, it had rotted them, infected them, eaten them away. They were the hollow men, the turkey round the stuffing. Tame pets, faithfully reflecting a world which taunted them. They were up to their necks in a cream cake from which they would only ever be able to nibble crumbs.
And so, they decide to leave everything and travel… but then, guess what? They get bored with their newly found freedom and come back and try to copy their previous style of living.
I can summarize this book in a sentence and excuse my French: C'est la vie!
-A Man Asleep ***
Man sitting on a narrow bed… a book open on his knees, eyes vacant…
He has no desire to carry on, no desire to defend himself, no desire to attack…he is waiting for nothing.
He is a young student who has become indifferent towards everything; towards life, and in a sense is asleep.
The story is told in second person narrative.