This work is translated from the French, and even though in English it loses some of its lyrical power, it still remains a unique work with a unique voice. This is a story between a would-be-novelist and a girl he meets by chance. What works in the novel is the unpretentiousness of the narrator, whose prose reads almost like a stream of conciousness and yet manages to remain honest. It captures well the mind of 'a man' without censoring much of anything or compromising its literary integrity. It is emotionally charged, and the characters stay with you long after you've finished the book. I highly recommend this book since it is the only one of a dozen Philippe Djian's novels which has been translated.

i loved it. djian is a great writer. i write my own stories but after djian i decided to quit. he's done everything i want to do. u must read this... fabulous.

This book rocks, Djians writeing is pure rythm'blues and his characters are beaming of live and spirit. a real must read for pretty much everybody (unless you are prude 8-)

"Writing" combines elements of fictional narrative, literary theory, and conversational Q&A all in Duras's recognizable voice. It is a wonderful book allowing readers to experience both Duras's writing process and the finished outcome.

this is the last book by Duras, as she passed away on March 4, 1996. Recommended for anyone who appreciates the spledid bareness of her late style. Her theory of writing, why she wrote, and what compells writers...fascinating, and reads like a meditation.

This short book on Lautréamont is an interesting and highly inteligent introduction to a writer who should be far better known in the English speaking countries. Polizzotti is a leading authority on French literature and one of our finest translators. I recommend this book to all those interested in French literature and those who want to know more about the origins of modern French poetry.

This beautifully produced book is certain to become a collectors item and represents a good investment not only for book collectors but for anyone who really cares about literature.This represents Breton at his most accessible and personal and is a delight from start to finish. it is published in paris by the only independent literary publisher following in the tradition of the lost generation; another reason to support this book. Only a handful of copies made it for sale in the USA and Breton has no better interpreter than Polizzotti.

Dumaul was French surrealist who was equally interested in language and mysticism. Like Artaud, he sometimes seemed to view human existence as ghostlike, trapped as a brain in a skull like a fish in a tank. Agonizing and fascinating.

An elderly lady retells events from her childhood. She describes her confusion and fear when her best friend has to wear a yellow star, her sadness when her friend mysteriously disappears one night and her enduring hope of finding her again. Great introduction for learning about the Jews under Nazi Germany. Reading level is third grade but good as a read aloud to younger children. Very moving.

Each year I do a thematic unit on the Holocaust and this is one of the picture books that I use with my sixth grade students. They enjoy the story and the pictures portray the writer's feelings were very.

As far as pure information about Breton goes, this book is an absolute must have, and I immediately bought it myself. But I personally feel that Mark Polizzotti is far too prejudiced in the negative direction as regards Andre Breton, and every admirer of his should keep this in mind. He is an excellent translator and an undeniably well informed scholar with respect to Dada and Surrealism, but if he was so determined to bash Breton and take shots at him left and right, maybe he should have written another book called "I'm Pissy and Cynical:Why I Hate Andre Breton". Yes, it is true that Breton had contradictions in his character and attitudes, but all great men do. Breton's relentless campaign against all forms of coercion and institutional authority (indeed, authority of any kind) more than makes up for the flaws that he had, the flaws which we all have in one way or another. (A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds, Mark.) And let's keep in mind, not to be mean, who is writing the biography and who is getting the biography written about them. Polizzotti makes sure to magnify Breton's admittedly dubious and perhaps even downright hypocritical stance on homosexuality to the point where you would think that Surrealism was about gay bashing. Without Andre Breton Surrealism would never have even gotten off it's feet. His so called 'ex communications' were botched but at the same time basically well intentioned attempts to keep the surrealist rebellion genuine and authentic, and his supposed 'dictatorial personality' was simply his passionate nature translated into action. Like all great leaders he wanted to adhere to the principles he had set for himself and the friends who accompanied him on the great spiritual adventure of poetry and 'the marvelous' that was Surrealism. Hate him or love him, what Breton himself said of Rimbaud's drinking buddy Germain Noveau can be said of the arch surrealist himself:"Absolute non conformism ruled his life from beginning to end."

This book is entertaining as well as informative. I noticed one review on this site with the subtext of 'I prefer baguettes to burgers/Americans are bad' so I thought I'd weigh in. Also the critic in question cannot even READ in Breton's language then lambasts Americans in general for not appreciating his chosen magus.

I'll try and do better and focus on the book.

The book's intellectual/social millieu is well described. You can drop in on almost any page and be immersed in what the times were about and who the major figures were.

True, Polizotti really gives it to Breton. However-most of the 'bad' stuff is given to us in quotes or writings OF Breton or his contemporaries. Can we really fault an author for telling us things we may not WANT to know about a public figure?

Also, the book has a comic aspect. Everytime Breton pulls some tomfoolery or a writer for instance snipes at how controlling this figure in bright green suits was, you can't help but laugh at the pretentiousness involved. IN this sense, Breton is a great comic. He courts Freud, Freud prefers Dali. He courts some woman, she prefers another man. He wants to lecture to the Americans, they put Dali on the cover of Time Magazine. He raises some fuss somewhere and Eluard-yet, again-gets beaten up like a child on a playground. The clothing, that arch-high language, the situations-he is extremely funny. Not fake funny like Jerry Lewis, but bust a gut, deflate the persona funny. Not unlike old movie farces where the joke is on a dowager or banker.

I gave the book an extra star for making me laugh several times. It's really a four star book in other ways.

k

When Aube (Breton's only child) was very young, Breton told her that someday he will tell and teach her anything she wants to know about "life, love and revolution". Indeed these can be described as the essence of Breton's colorful, and dramatic life. Plozzotti has not only told us aboiut the history of Surrealism, but also told us about how Breton started, and eventually controlled every aspect of this movement. Excellent book. Highly recommended.

Though this edition is revised, a newer collection would be more practical since the advent of post-modern thinking with the likes of Pynchon, Barth, Barthelme, Gaddis, Hawkes, and Heller heading the movement.

This collection is bogged down by Breton's psychoanalytic readings in the author introductions and his grasping for authors and passages to lengthen the page count in order to have a sizable book.

Yet there are names which have long since been forgotten which, due to this collection, are sustained and might later be an aide in their reevaluation.

Highlights include: Grabbe, Allais, Baudelaire, L'Isle-Adam, Cros, Huysmans, Jarry, Rigaut.

This book is only for those who are studying the field and will be a bitter disappointment for anyone else, esp. people looking for a humor collection per se.

breton's eulogy of surrealist revolt is basically incarnated in this book, which is a collection of insane and eccentric (particularly lacenaire, murderer and poet) figures who, through absurd humor and surrealistic flights of the fantastic, cast serious (sometimes dangerous) doubts on the validity of the Reality Principle. The best in this collection is perhaps Benjamin Peret, the most uncompromising surrealist of them all. His work is completely recalcitrant to mundane reality, forcing it to become magical and, of course, surreal. Admittedly, some of these writers are difficult to penetrate, but the effort is certainly worth it. Jarry especially.

I want to vomit right now. Good.

This offbeat French novel (which won the Prix Médicis in 1983) is hard to pin down. It more or less follows the story of George Chave, a tall but otherwise nondescript middle-aged Parisian collector of jazz records. He lives off a meager inheritance until one day he meets a woman, falls in love, and discovers the need for greater income. This more or less leads him to a job at a very strange detective agency, where he is involved in searches for a rare missing parrot, a runaway wife, the heir to a great fortune, and becomes entangled in a weird cult. Along the way one meets geriatric booksellers, giant thugs, intrepid policemen, suspicious private eyes, a homicidal cousin, actors and actresses, an odd Englishmen, a police informer, and several others. That, in a nutshell, explains what's wrong with the book-there are too many characters in too small a space and keeping track of everyone's agendas gets to be rather a chore. However, the prose is both dry and humorous, and worth reading for its' own sake. You have to love a book that starts with, "One day a man came out of a shed."