Snapshots by Allen Robbe-Grillet
WHAT
SNAPSHOTS BY ALAIN ROBBE-GRILLET
WHERE
ORIGINALLY BOUGHT AT ARIEL BOOKS, 42 OXFORD ST, PADDINGTON
HOW MUCH
AVAILABLE ONLINE FROM AMAZON FROM US$14 (WHICH IS PRACTICALLY AUD$14)
Think of a manuscript cut into pieces, thrown in the air and put back together in a random order, and that is a Robbe-Grillet story.
This book is like a treasure trove of beautiful small gems, a collection of short stories by the important French author. Each story is an exquisite description of a single scene, a glimpse of a captured moment. The details of these moments however shift and change with recollection.
Robbe-Grillet is known as one of the founders of the ‘Nouveau Roman' literary theory in the ‘50s, which challenged the traditional structure of novels. Repetitive descriptions of objects replace the importance of character development while timelines and plots are fractured, producing the literary equivalent of a cubist painting.
Our favourite story, ‘The Shore' describes a visual picture of an idyllic summers' day at the beach, but underlying the scene, as with much of Robbe-Grillets' work, is a hidden current of menace and a sense that all is not what it seems. A beautiful contrast is the story ‘Wrong Direction', a brief sketch of a shaded, forest-lined pool that somehow captures in three pages, the darkest of possibilities.Format: Book
Motivation: Good with a whiskey in the bath
Keywords: Short Stories, Lyn & Tony
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