Description
Mathias, a timorous, ineffectual traveling salesman, returns to the island of his birth after a long absence. Two days later, a thirteen-year-old girl is found drowned and mutilated. With eerie precision, Robbe-Grillet puts us at the scene of the crime and takes us inside Mathias's mind, artfully enlisting us as detective hot on the trail of a homocidal maniac. A triumphant display of the techniques of the "new novel," The Voyeur achieves the impossible feat of keeping us utterlyengrossed in the mystery of the child's murder while systematically raising doubts about whether it really occurred.
Genres
Collection
Publication
Grove Press (2018), Edition: Reprint, 224 pages
User reviews
LibraryThing member poetontheone
Robbe-Grillet crafts a sort of narrative puzzle here, details revealed and suspicions raised and resolved as the story retreads itself and at the same time moves forward. The focus is on objects and on time, instead of direct characterization and plot. I can see the justifications for this, an
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effort to reinvent the dimensions of the novel and how narrative is constructed. However, I don't empathize with Mathias or the townspeople or, more surprisingly, the dead girl. I find no room to empathize with them because Robbe-Grillet makes them feel more like chess pieces then like people. I can understand his motivation, but characterization and empathy are vital elements to a successful narrative in my opinion. As for this story, we figure out how it unfolds, but not so much why any of it happens. Show Less
LibraryThing member kwohlrob
Robbe-Grillet's ability to deconstruct time in a story never ceases to amaze me. Upon first reading of the Voyeur, you're thrown by the repetition of the lead character's thoughts. But as the author weaves you back through the ever more familiar scenarios, subtle changes and shifts start to reveal
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the truth that the character is hiding. One of the more brilliant reinventions of what a novel can be. Show Less
Original language
English
Original publication date
1958