Forgotten Classics and Other Lesser Known Books (or No One Has Read this but Me!) discussion

This is the thread for background on both our November selection and it's author, Raymond Queneau, and initial thoughts. My copy is only 157 pages, which fits well with a busy November. lets keep this thread spoiler-free and post updates that include spoilers in the "whole book" thread.

If you are planning to participate, this is a gentle reminder that it's time to obtain your copy.

Who's planning to join our discussion?

I had forgotten this discussion was coming up so soon, and although I know that I voted for this one, I have not yet tried to find a copy, and I have a lot of other reading commitments, so I may not get round to it before the end of the month.

Hugh wrote: "I had forgotten this discussion was coming up so soon, and although I know that I voted for this one, I have not yet tried to find a copy, and I have a lot of other reading commitments, so I may no..."

Whenever you get to it, we will welcome your insights, Hugh. The background research has already taught me much I didn't know and found interesting. I'll organize and upload it later in the week.

Any other voters or newcomers planning to read and discuss Zazie?

carissa wrote: "Mine is waiting for me at the library. I will wait to read it after you post your info Carol."

The pressure's on, then :)

I bought a copy yesterday and hope to get round to reading it before the end of the month, but my self-imposed rule of alternating books by male and female authors is creating a backlog of group reads by men!

Let's start tomorrow, Carissa, if you have time. I'll have a couple of hours in the a.m. at my laptop where I can irresponsibly focus on Queneau and Zazie, and then start the book in the early evening, I've been entirely impulsive this weekend but will rejoin the world of adults at noon or so Monday.

I am hoping to be able to join in on this one, it sounds interesting! We'll see how the month goes though, I may just have to join in later in the month.

Kerri wrote: "I am hoping to be able to join in on this one, it sounds interesting! We'll see how the month goes though, I may just have to join in later in the month."

Whenever you are able to, you are welcome to, Kerri!

Background on Raymond Queneau and Zazie

Queneau (1903 – 1976), best known for the 13th of his 15 novels, Zazie dans le métro, was born in Le Havre, left for Paris when he was 17, and educated at the Sorbonne. In 1924, he met and joined Andre Breton’s Surrealists but after only a brief stint he dissociated himself. He performed military service as a zouave in Algeria and Morocco during the years 1925–26, and wrote his first novel, Le Chiendent (published as Witch Grass by NYRB), in Greece in the summer of 1932.

As an author, Queneau, a respected poet, novelist and critic with a bent for wordplay, came to general attention in France with the publication in 1959 of Zazie. With Zazie, he turned linguistic experimentation into a comic masterpiece, and himself into a celebrity. The first word of the book, the alarmingly long Doukipudonktan is a phonetic transcription of D'où qu'ils puent donc tant? – "How come they stink so much?". He invents words, defies syntax and spelling, and irreverently mixes street slang, profanities, and philosophy.

From an essay on the movie posted at Criterion.com (publisher of the movie on DVD): "Raymond Queneau’s Zazie dans le métro is the funniest book ever written in, and about, the French language. When it came out in 1959, it “made the whole of France laugh,” Jean-Paul Rappeneau, who helped Louis Malle adapt it to the screen, recounted in a 2005 interview.

https://www.criterion.com/current/pos...

From the Introduction by Gilbert Adair that accompanies the Penguin paperback version I am reading, a few pertinent quotes: "Queneau was regarded by his peers as an intellectual of unimpeachable credentials."
“France neither looks for nor expects humour from its great writers.”
“It’s also significant that, when Roland Barthes published an essay in praise of him, he remarked that it was doubtless the fact that Queneau’s fiction made its readers laugh at loud that had prevented it from being held in as high esteem as it deserved.”

Queneau’s many books, which typically blur the boundaries between fiction, poetry, and the essay, include, in addition to Zazie, Pierrot Mon Ami, Sunday of Life, and one of Queneau's most influential works: Exercises in Style, which tells the simple story of a man's seeing the same stranger twice in one day. It tells that short story in 99 different ways, demonstrating the tremendous variety of styles in which storytelling can occur.

Finally, on a different note, he was Iris Murdoch’s mentor. She dedicated her debut novel, Under the Net, to him. Here’s a link to a 2010 Guardian article commenting on Murdoch’s letters to Queneau, sent over decades.

https://www.theguardian.com/books/201...

Louis Malle's movie based on Zazie, the novel

The movie, written, produced and directed by then-27-year-old Louis Malle, was released in October 1960. It is available on DVD from Criterion. Note that, in the film, Zazie is younger than in the book.


Link to Rotten Tomatoes reviews of the film: https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/zazi...?

A real-time review in the NYTimes from Justin O'Brien, a Professor of French at Columbia, is worthwhile and quite short. (Because of its age, it is available in pdf only, and only to Times subscribers. Also, since it hasn't been digitized, it doesn't show up in standard search results.)

http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-...

One of his comments is that, to get the wordplay, it is best read aloud.

My hat is of to this translator. The sheer volume of made-up words, puns and intentional misspellings, in service to a joke, must have driven her to drink.

I've just begun, but it reminds me of Who's on First? and like routines.

You're welcome, Carissa! Now I HAVE to see the movie. I don't know how I've missed it.

Finally got round to this one, and read the first 5 chapters. So far despite the clever and creative translation I am rather wishing my French was up to reading the original! All quite entertaining but I suspect I am missing a lot.