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A Void
A Void | Georges Perec, Gilbert Adair
The Year Is 1968, and as France is torn apart by social and political anarchy, the noted eccentric and insomniac Anton Vowl goes missing. Ransacking his Paris flat, his best friends scour his diary for clues to his whereabouts. At first glance these pages reveal nothing but Vowl's penchant for word games, especially for "lipograms," compositions in which the use of a particular letter is suppressed. But as the friends work out Vowl's verbal puzzles, and as they investigate various leads discovered among the entries, they too disappear, one by one by one, and under the most mysterious circumstances... A Void is a metaphysical whodunit, a story chock-full of plots and subplots, of trails in pursuit of trails, all of which afford Perec occasion to display his virtuosity as a verbal magician, acrobat, and sad-eyed clown. It is also an outrageous verbal stunt: a 300-page novel that never once employs the letter E. Adair's translation, too, is astounding; Time called it "a daunting triumph of will pushing its way through imposing roadblocks to a magical country, an absurdist nirvana of humor, pathos, and loss."
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Kangaj1
A Void | Georges Perec, Gilbert Adair
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Epic nerdpurr: I am so excited to read this book that I got that does not use the letter E. It's a popular Oulipo book, of which @Liberty introduced me to with the book One Hundred Twenty-One Days by Michele Audin. Here's hoping the story is as good as the setup!

Moray_Reads It's so clever and for someone to translate it without using e always seemed like a miracle to me 4y
22 likes1 comment
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Emilymdxn
A Void | Georges Perec, Gilbert Adair
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Mehso-so

Odd and difficult to follow - not because of the writing style which was absolutely masterful, just because I found the relationships between the characters hard to understand. Strange that Perec did so well at writing without the letter E, something that I really didn‘t think anyone could do - but didn‘t do as well at explaining who everyone was

arubabookwoman That must have been extremely difficult for the translator as well-to convey Perec‘s meaning and tone from French to English, and to do it only with words without an “e”. 6y
Emilymdxn @arubabookwoman absolutely! Whatever I think about the plot I can‘t fault the translator 6y
25 likes1 stack add2 comments
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Emilymdxn
A Void | Georges Perec, Gilbert Adair
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Hi @Bookwomble ! Here‘s an extract of the page I‘m on of A Void! Not an ‘e‘ in sight

arubabookwoman Got to get that off my TBR shelf and read it. Life, A User‘s Manual is one of my favorite books! 6y
ephemeralwaltz Thanks for shaeing! I was intrigued! That translator deserves praise! 6y
23 likes2 comments
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Emilymdxn
A Void | Georges Perec, Gilbert Adair
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Found somewhere shady to read for a lil bit before my booker events start. I‘ve been trying to read more translated fiction recently so why not go for the most intense complicated translation ever?? I have no idea how they did this but Jesus Christ.

Bookwomble No letter 'E' at all? Could you give a quote? I'm dying to see how that's been managed! 6y
23 likes2 comments
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Hobbinol
A Void | Georges Perec, Gilbert Adair
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This book was written entirely without the letter "E." So apologies to today's #ereader . ? #oulipo

LeahBergen 😂Well played! 👏🏻👏🏻 7y
Lindy Nice one! 7y
saresmoore Ha! This made me smile. 7y
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Faibka Nice one!! 😁 7y
CherylDeFranceschi I love Perec. 7y
Hobbinol @CherylDeFranceschi Me too... I'd buy him a vowel. 7y
52 likes3 stack adds7 comments
review
CherylDeFranceschi
A Void | Georges Perec, Gilbert Adair
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Pickpick

A 300-page lipogram, metaphysical and very funny. There's not an e in the whole book. A very fun read. @shawnmooney this post is for you. I can highly recommend this read from one of the Oulipo founders.

shawnmooney Sounds fun! Thanks! 8y
62 likes5 stack adds1 comment