book rec?/ if you enjoyed P, try these /++

[Vivek Ahlawat]

Recently I saw a very interesting book on the
notebooks of Life. It was fascinating to read through
and to observe a master at work. For each chapter in
the novel there was a mindboggling list of references,
and stuff that's in there all mixed up. Perec is
doodling all over the pages and has endless endless
lists, phone numbers and sums on the paper. He weaves
in a number of other literary texts (what's this
technique called ? Rifacimento(?) a la Under the
Volcano: Academic Bow Wows Please confirm. The
notebooks were a kind of skeleton and goes to show
just to what extent a literary genius will go to flash
out his work.

Are we ever going to have a peek at the engineer's
quadrille sheets and his handwriting and the stuff
which had to be rewritten because even HE could not
make sense of it.

--- James Kyllo <jkyllo at clara.net> wrote:
> I'm another fan of "Life - A User's Manual" although
> I felt throughout that
> I was missing something by reading it in English,
> not that the translation
> is bad, but I had the impression that there were a
> lot of secondary things
> (puns, anagrams, double meanings) missing.
> 
> I'd also encourage anybody to read Canetti's
> Auto-Da-Fe imho the best novel
> that Gaddis or Pynchon didn't write.
> 
> Some others so far unmentioned:
> 
> Machado de Assis - Philosopher Or Dog
> John Dos Passos - several but especially USA
> Tibor Fischer - first 3 but especially  The Thought
> Gang
> Arthur Nersesian - The Fuck-Up
> Alfredo Vea Jr - The Silver Cloud Cafe
> 
> best
> 
> James
> 


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