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orndal's review against another edition
challenging
reflective
fast-paced
3.0
Kreativt, men jeg vet ikke hvor mye jeg fikk ut av den
hein's review
reflective
medium-paced
3.0
Inspired by (and frankly inferior to) Joe Brainard’s “I Remember,” but with important appendices for the non-Francophile.
sweetjaneeyre's review against another edition
Τα 480 "θυμάμαι" του Perec είναι κατακερματισμένη όλη του η ζωή. Γιατί τι άλλο είμαστε εκτός από μνήμες;
danidamico's review
funny
reflective
relaxing
Hay pocos desconocidos tan entrañables como Georges Perec. Quiero que sea mi amigo.
psr's review
5.0
Je me souviens, in which Georges Perec lists 479 things he remembers, mostly from between 1946 and 1961, each beginning with "I remember"... The idea was first mentioned to him by this book's dedicatee, Harry Mathews, who told Perec about a book of the same name by American artist, Joe Brainard. His biographer and principal translator, David Bellos, informs us in the introduction that we'll spot references to items in Perec's other works. He also warns us that many of the memories are obscure and might be shared only by Parisians of a certain generation or an even smaller coterie (reading his biography helps somewhat). Here are some of my favourites:
No. 76 - "I remember the motor-paced racing cyclists at Parc des Princes." Well, that's the tale of Albert Massy in Ch. 73 of Life a User's Manual...
No. 96 - "I remember 'quatre quarts' owes its name to the fact it's made from a quarter milk, a quarter sugar, a quarter flour, and a quarter butter." I certainly remember that the Breton cake is a guilty pleasure but I didn't know the origins of its name. Bellos points out that Perec is mistaken - it's a quarter eggs not milk (clearly, the writer had never baked a cake).
No. 181 - "I remember that Johnny Halliday made an appearance as a special guest star at Bobino supporting Raymond Devos (I think I even said something along the lines of: 'if this guy makes it I'm going to top myself...). Ha ha - the "French Elvis". I can only concur with his judgement.
No. 353 - "I remember that the three magi were called Gaspard, Melchior and Balthazar." It would seem that the three wise men were an early obsession. Gaspard Winckler is a recurring name - and perhaps, character - in Perec's fiction, appearing in Portrait of a Man, W, or the Memory of Childhood and, of course, Life a User's Manual.
No. 435 - "I remember when I used to go and fetch milk in a battered tin can." I'm suspecting this must be a memory from before 1946, when Perec lived in the French Alps with his aunt and uncle to avoid the German persecution of the Jews. I have a similar early memory of a holiday in the Swiss Alps. I would be sent every day to the village dairy with my tin jug to ask for "zwei litre milch, bitte".
Superficially, I Remember appears to be a very slight work. Cumulatively, it gathers strength. In tandem with Perec's other works, we build up a portrait of a man from a very particular time and culture. Like so many Frenchmen, he took an interest in cycle racing. He enjoyed the theatre and cinema. He was a bookish child. He enjoyed word games and jokes. He had a sweet tooth (as warranted by the appalling state of his teeth in later life). As a war orphan, he mentions his uncle and cousins but never his parents (similar to the missing 'e' in La disparation). And so what begins as a list, that dry and impersonal medium beloved by the author, ultimately becomes a moving and intimate portrait at one remove.
The actual text of Perec's work spans only 75 pages. Like Eliot's notes on The Wasteland, it might appear to have been bulked out to produce a saleable item. In fact, Bellos's introduction and notes on the items are illuminating. Commenting on No. 231, he notes drily, "A television programme. Perec never owned a set." I didn't know that but it makes sense of course. You don't compose an oeuvre like Perec's sitting on the sofa binge-watching American sitcoms. The translation itself is by the Oulipian expert and author of Oulipoems among other works, Philip Terry. And an excellent translation it is too.
Having read Bellos's biography, I was aware of this work long before it became available in English. Now my curiosity is sated.
No. 76 - "I remember the motor-paced racing cyclists at Parc des Princes." Well, that's the tale of Albert Massy in Ch. 73 of Life a User's Manual...
No. 96 - "I remember 'quatre quarts' owes its name to the fact it's made from a quarter milk, a quarter sugar, a quarter flour, and a quarter butter." I certainly remember that the Breton cake is a guilty pleasure but I didn't know the origins of its name. Bellos points out that Perec is mistaken - it's a quarter eggs not milk (clearly, the writer had never baked a cake).
No. 181 - "I remember that Johnny Halliday made an appearance as a special guest star at Bobino supporting Raymond Devos (I think I even said something along the lines of: 'if this guy makes it I'm going to top myself...). Ha ha - the "French Elvis". I can only concur with his judgement.
No. 353 - "I remember that the three magi were called Gaspard, Melchior and Balthazar." It would seem that the three wise men were an early obsession. Gaspard Winckler is a recurring name - and perhaps, character - in Perec's fiction, appearing in Portrait of a Man, W, or the Memory of Childhood and, of course, Life a User's Manual.
No. 435 - "I remember when I used to go and fetch milk in a battered tin can." I'm suspecting this must be a memory from before 1946, when Perec lived in the French Alps with his aunt and uncle to avoid the German persecution of the Jews. I have a similar early memory of a holiday in the Swiss Alps. I would be sent every day to the village dairy with my tin jug to ask for "zwei litre milch, bitte".
Superficially, I Remember appears to be a very slight work. Cumulatively, it gathers strength. In tandem with Perec's other works, we build up a portrait of a man from a very particular time and culture. Like so many Frenchmen, he took an interest in cycle racing. He enjoyed the theatre and cinema. He was a bookish child. He enjoyed word games and jokes. He had a sweet tooth (as warranted by the appalling state of his teeth in later life). As a war orphan, he mentions his uncle and cousins but never his parents (similar to the missing 'e' in La disparation). And so what begins as a list, that dry and impersonal medium beloved by the author, ultimately becomes a moving and intimate portrait at one remove.
The actual text of Perec's work spans only 75 pages. Like Eliot's notes on The Wasteland, it might appear to have been bulked out to produce a saleable item. In fact, Bellos's introduction and notes on the items are illuminating. Commenting on No. 231, he notes drily, "A television programme. Perec never owned a set." I didn't know that but it makes sense of course. You don't compose an oeuvre like Perec's sitting on the sofa binge-watching American sitcoms. The translation itself is by the Oulipian expert and author of Oulipoems among other works, Philip Terry. And an excellent translation it is too.
Having read Bellos's biography, I was aware of this work long before it became available in English. Now my curiosity is sated.
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