About the book
Set in a Paris apartment block at 11 rue Simon-Crubellier, Georges Perec's novel holds the whole building still at a single moment on June 23, 1975, and moves room by room through the lives of its residents. The main thread follows Bartlebooth, a very rich Englishman who spends ten years learning watercolor from the painter Valène, then travels the world painting ports, and has each picture cut into a jigsaw puzzle by the craftsman Gaspard Winckler to solve on his return. Hundreds of other stories branch off from the building. Perec, whose one long-term literary affiliation was the Oulipo group, built it on a complex plan of writing constraints, and David Bellos translated the novel into English.
Writer Alina Varlanuta, creator of The Hole in Your Head, counts the residents of its apartment block among her favorite fictional characters.
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This book has 1 recommendation
Alina Varlanuta (Creator/The Hole in Your Head)
I don’t have [a favourite book]. But I do have favourite characters: [....] All inhabitants of the apartment block on 11Rue Simon-Crubellier who lived inside George Perec’s ‘Life. A user’s manual.’.
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