Exercises in Style

Raymond Queneau is fast becoming a favorite author of mine. Exercises in Style is one of those books that made me laugh to myself with noone around. If a book can produce any kind of emotion to me, whether crying or laughing, I laud it as a seminal work of art because I'm truly an unfeeling person.

I'll admit though, Exercises in Style took me a bit longer to read because there are some tedious parts. It is the same story, over and over again and that gets a bit boring, but some of the exercises are so profoundly hilarious that it resonates beyond belief. Of course, I read the translated version because my French is non-existent at this point, but I hope to some day read it in the original language to a satisfactory understanding. That said, the monumental effort to translate it impressed me almost as much as Queneau's work itself.

The story itself is innocuous and insignificant, but through his styles it becomes incredible. Sometimes the long-necked man is the villain; sometimes he is sympathetic. That alone should show the incredible skill of Queneau in the work, but I pinched my bottom and forced myself to read on and deeper. I will say, the probability, the haiku and the philosophic were some of my favorites. Some of the jumbled writing I didn't fully understand, but through effort and having read the story a hundred times or more it made sense. Some of the exercises written by other authors read like college assignments and others read like full blown doctoral theses. It's probably not going to be everybody's cup of tea, but it's worth a read. I enjoyed it immensely.