Status
Available
Call number
Genres
Publication
McSweeney's (2011), Edition: First Trade Paper Edition, Paperback, 150 pages
Description
Paul Poissel was not born in 1848. As a young man, he did not set out to become the greatest Turkish architect in Paris. He did not fail to become the greatest Turkish architect in Paris. He never became a poet, or invented puzzles for an illustrated magazine. In 1904, he did not write this book, The Facts of Winter. Paul La Farge has translated (from the original French) this collection of dreams?funny, haunting, enigmatic?all dreamed by people in and around Paris in 1881. La Farge's afterword investigates the Facts' creation, uncovering startling revelations, unknown truths, and new falsehoods.
User reviews
LibraryThing member Marensr
Paul La Farge’s book THE FACTS OF WINTER is a haunting, funny, intriguing, little book. There are echoes of the unreliable editor of Nabokov’s Pale Fire or the authorial self-awareness of Calvino’s If On a Winter’s Night a Traveler and the strings of strange little stories like Calvino’s
The book features a series of short dreams (1-3 pages) of Parisians in 1881. On facing pages, the reader is treated to French and English versions of the dream narratives followed by an academic-styled afterward examining the life of the ersatz author Paul Poissel. The writing is lyrical and the reader has a haunting feeling of the interconnectedness of certain images and ideas among the dreams that in a way that is highly pleasing but difficult to explain. If one reads even a little French there are certain sly winks in the French. As discussed in the afterward, the title itself is a pun in French: Les faits d’hiver or L’effet divers. The illustrations are an added bonus and suit the work perfectly. They remind me of Lorca’s doodles.
Much like trying to describe a dream to a friend it is difficult to describe the way the book connects and intertwines as you read it which is perhaps why I’ve resorted to so many comparisons. It is not a book for those who demand straightforward narrative, but for those who enjoy good, poetic writing and are willing to let the work wash over them it is a lovely read. It is the best thing I’ve read in months.
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Invisible Cities. Yet, it is a lovely work in it’s own right and is in no way derivative of these earlier works. The book features a series of short dreams (1-3 pages) of Parisians in 1881. On facing pages, the reader is treated to French and English versions of the dream narratives followed by an academic-styled afterward examining the life of the ersatz author Paul Poissel. The writing is lyrical and the reader has a haunting feeling of the interconnectedness of certain images and ideas among the dreams that in a way that is highly pleasing but difficult to explain. If one reads even a little French there are certain sly winks in the French. As discussed in the afterward, the title itself is a pun in French: Les faits d’hiver or L’effet divers. The illustrations are an added bonus and suit the work perfectly. They remind me of Lorca’s doodles.
Much like trying to describe a dream to a friend it is difficult to describe the way the book connects and intertwines as you read it which is perhaps why I’ve resorted to so many comparisons. It is not a book for those who demand straightforward narrative, but for those who enjoy good, poetic writing and are willing to let the work wash over them it is a lovely read. It is the best thing I’ve read in months.
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LibraryThing member HadriantheBlind
A floating, slow, catalogue of dreams. But the author himself is a fabrication, and the story of his life is another part of the book.
A wandering, little collection of stories which make sense only in the way dreams make sense. Plays with the idea of the 'story' like Italo Calvino does. I mean that
A wandering, little collection of stories which make sense only in the way dreams make sense. Plays with the idea of the 'story' like Italo Calvino does. I mean that
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in the best way. Show Less
Language
Original publication date
2005
Physical description
150 p.; 7.25 inches
ISBN
1936365448 / 9781936365449