Things: A Story of the Sixties; A Man Asleep (Verba Mundi)
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With the American publication of Lifestyle, a User\'s Guide in 1987, Georges Perec was instantly recognized in the U.S. as one particular of this century\'s most progressive writers. Now Godine is pleased to concern two of his most potent novels in one volume: Issues, in an authoritative new translation, and A Guy Asleep, generating its very first English look. Each provoked sturdy reactions when they first appeared in the 1960s the two which talk with disquieting immediacy to the conscience of today\'s readers. In each tale Perec subtly probes our obsession with society\'s trappings the seductive mass of items that crams our lives, masquerading as stability and that means.Jerome and Sylvie, the young, upwardly mobile couple in Things, lust for the very good daily life. \"They wished life\'s enjoyment, but all all around them enjoyment was equated with ownership.\" Surrounded by Paris\'s tantalizing unique boutiques, they exist in a paralyzing vacuum of frustration, caught amongst the fantasy of \"the film they would have liked to reside\" and the reality of life\'s day-to-day mundanities.In direct contrast with Jerome and Sylvie\'s cravings, the nameless student in A Man Asleep attempts to purify himself completely of material wishes and ambition. He longs \"to want nothing. Just to wait, till there is absolutely nothing left to wait for. Just to wander, and to sleep.\" Yearning to exist on neutral ground as \"a blessed parenthesis,\" he discovers that this wish is by its quite nature a defeat.Accessible, sobering, and deeply involving, every novel distills Perec\'s unerring grasp of the human situation as effectively as displaying his uncommon comic talent. His generosity of observation is each detached and compassionate.
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