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Here, in one volume, are two remarkable novels by the chief spokesman of the so-called "new novel" which has caused such discussion and aroused such controversy. "Jealousy," said the New York Times Book Review "is a technical masterpiece, impeccably contrived." "It is an exhilarating challenge," said the San Francisco Chronicle. The Times Literary Supplement of London called Robbe-Grillet an "incomparable artist" and the Guardian termedJealousy "an extraordinary book." In his native France, leading critic Maurice Nadeau wrote in France-Observateur that "In the Labyrinth is better than an excellent novel: it is a great work of literature," and fellow novelist and critic Claude Roy judged the same work Robbe-Grillet's "best book," while here in America the "Parade of Books" column called In the Labyrinth "a highly emotional experience for the reader" and went on to predict: "Robbe-Grillet will take his place in world literature as a successor of Balzac and Proust." This volume, which offers incisive essays on Robbe-Grillet by Professor Bruce Morrissette of the University of Chicago and by French critics Roland Barthes and Anne Minor, also contains a helpful bibliography of writings by and about the author.… (more)
User reviews
What we get from a Robbe-Grillet is a cinematic and psychological effect. Plot or narrative is played down. An avalanche of repetitive observations allows the reader to imagine the action in his or her own head. By constantly repeating particular points, by focusing on peripheral objects, he fleshes out the makings of a story for the reader. In this respect the writer makes a demand on the reader and in that sense treats him as an equal in the creation of the story. One can see it this way anyway.
Of the two short novels here--Jealousy--has a Carribean like setting on a banana plantation. An adulterous flirtation between a married man and the wife of another as seen through the eyes of her husband. An intensity builds as the husband constantly reviews certain images of the flirtation--trying to make sense of them only to have expand into an ever widening arc of potentialities.
The somewhat Kafkaesque nature of In the Labyrinth has a sick and wounded soldier wandering through an unfamiliar city looking for a mysterious stranger to deliver a package and so fulfill a wish of a dead comrade. A claustrophobic atmosphere permeating empty corridors of buildings with an enemy army on the outskirts of the city on the point of entrance.
In any case--these aren't as difficult as my description might make them seem--they do require some concentration but they are not only thought provoking but rewarding as well.