Greetings everyone:
I am a new lurker-turned poster who had to chirp up when I
saw mention of Jean Echenoz.
I read Echenoz's *Big Blondes* a few years back and remember
enjoying it. The writing style is unique. He takes quite a
few risks with the narrative, and at time borders on the
surreal (in a Haruki Murakami kind of way).
First sentence of the book sets the tone: "You are Paul
Salvador and you are looking for someone."
Is it hardboiled? Not quite. But worth the read.
Chris
> . . . is a French writer who was described in this
Sunday's New York
Times
> Book Review as being influenced by Gustave Flaubert
and Dashiell Hammett.
> Sounds interesting. So does the first sentence of
the book under review,
> "Piano": [Max] is afraid. He is going to die a
violent death in 22 days
> but, as he is yet unaware of this, that is not what
he is afraid of." We
> then learn that Max is a pianist gripped by stage
fright and alcoholism -
> which makes me think we can add Goodis to Echenoz'
list of influences.
>
> The reviewer writes that Echenoz' "sardonic take on
Hammett's harid-boiled
> detective fiction is pure art" - but then also adds
that his PI's
> are"soft-boiled investigators - they're not even
real detectives, just
guys
> chasing someone." And then when I searched the
archives, the only
> referenceto Echenoz I found was from 1999 by Mark
Sullivan, who in
response
> to a query about French noir available in the U.S.
wrote, "Jean Echenoz
> doesn't really count as noir, does he?"
>
> Five years later, does anyone have anything to
add?
>
>
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