| Bathroom Contributor(s): Toussaint, Jean-Philippe (Author), Amphoux, Nancy (Translator), Deangelis, Paul (Translator) |
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ISBN: 1564785181 ISBN-13: 9781564785183 Publisher: Dalkey Archive Press OUR PRICE: $12.56 Product Type: Paperback - Other Formats Published: November 2008 Annotation: Simply, put, Jean-Philippe Toussaint is one of the most original novelists working today, and will almost undoubtedly go down as one of the great comic writers of our era. Toussaint has been likened to some diverse artists (Jim Jarmusch, Samuel Beckett, Nicholson Baker), but perhaps the most apt comparison is to Charlie Chaplin, for a few reasons. 1) Like Chaplin, he turns regular-life situations into comedy by the slightest and subtlest exaggerations; 2) He loves "stills," moments when our attention freezes on some detail of everyday life and it strikes us as ridiculous; 3) His stories move from scene to scene with often only the flimsiest excuse for an over-reaching plot, although what we come away with is not just a patchwork of set pieces but rather a surprising feeling of melancholy. Toussaint's contemporary existentialism is as poignant as it is funny. As the narrator of Toussaint's novel Monsieur says in his closing line: "Life, mere child's play, for Monsieur." |
| Additional Information |
| BISAC Categories: - Fiction | Literary |
| Dewey: FIC |
| LCCN: 2008016101 |
| Series: French Literature |
| Physical Information: 0.34" H x 5.3" W x 7.4" (0.29 lbs) 102 pages |
| Themes: - Cultural Region - French |
| Descriptions, Reviews, Etc. |
| Publisher Description: First published in France in 1985, The Bathroom was Jean-Philippe Toussaint's debut novel, and it heralded a new generation of innovative French literature. In this playful and perplexing book, we meet a young Parisian researcher who lives inside his bathroom. As he sits in his tub meditating on existence (and refusing to tell us his name), the people around him--his girlfriend, Edmondsson, the Polish painters in his kitchen--each in their own way further enables his peculiar lifestyle, supporting his eccentric quest for immobility. But an invitation to the Austrian embassy shakes up his stable world, prompting him to take a risk and leave his bathroom . . . |
