Sphinx by Anne Garreta, tr. from the French by Emma Ramadan

Title: Sphinx Author: Anne Garréta Translator: Emma Ramadan Publisher: Deep Vellum Publishing, Dallas (2015) ISBN: 978 1 9419 2009 1 Since finishing Anne Garréta’s Sphinx, spectacularly translated by Emma Ramadan, I’ve been trying to pinpoint exactly what it is about this book that so dazzles me.  I keep returning to the passage – …The party lasted well beyond the usual timeframe. Strictly speaking, I was no … Continue reading Sphinx by Anne Garreta, tr. from the French by Emma Ramadan

Eléctrico W by Hervé le Tellier, translated from the original French by Adriana Hunter

Let’s talk about Oulipo.  It’s a French movement that includes authors and mathematicians who use constraints when creating literature.  For example:  writing an entire novel without using the letter “a”.  Or using palindromes.  Or starting  every sentence with the same word or phrase.  Or, my particular favorite, replacing every noun with the seventh noun after it in the dictionary (this constraint has its own name:  … Continue reading Eléctrico W by Hervé le Tellier, translated from the original French by Adriana Hunter