Noir is a French Word, After All

As previously noted, I’m re-reading old favourites. Here are two:

Fiction: First up is The Erasers by Alain Robbe-Grillet

Can’t remember exactly when I read this.  My copy is dated 1987 and that seems about right. At the time I read about six of his novels, one after the other (and in English as I had no French to speak of then).

Les Gommes (1968)

Robbe-Grillet was the most famous of the French nouvelle-vague (new-wave) writers who appeared shortly after the war. His style includes repetition, very detailed descriptions, confusion of dreams and reality and an asynchronous time line. He was an original who, I’m told, has been much copied since. Trying to think of an example, this book reminds me in many ways of Paul Auster‘s New York Trilogy, another book I greatly appreciated.

This is a detective noir like none before it. All the style elements are employed to leave you confused. In that sense, I would say it is closer to great Art than a conventional linear novel.  You have to keep thinking about it, spotting nuances you missed, separating dream from reality and reordering events.

I’m really pleased I’ve re-read it and I’ll take time this winter to read again Djinn, my favourite of his books.

---

More fiction: briefly, Vanishing Point by Antonio Tabucchi is Italian Noir. On my bookshelf but don’t recall it at all. The chapters are short stylised set pieces, rather smart with a very European voice but I was disappointed by the ending.