Status
Available
Call number
Collection
Publication
New York : New Directions Publishing, [2021]
User reviews
LibraryThing member lriley
The premise of this book lies around a film that Perec and the French filmmaker Robert Bober made in the late 70's concerning European emigration to the United States and in particular Ellis Island the last stop before entry where a person was either allowed to go on or sent back. Using photography
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(I believe stills from the subsequent film) and Perec's descriptive talents the book gives the reader an idea of what it was like and what it meant for people to leave their countries and come to America to seek a better life. The last section is made up of several interviews mostly with elderly people who originally came here in the first decade of the 20th century and who describe their journeys and the reasons they made them. I found it to be an interesting book although Perec's prose in this non-fictional setting is much more spare than what it is in a fictional setting. Bober's photographs help to move the book along though and Perec as an interviewer is thoughtful in his questions and allows his interviewees to take center stage. A nice book. Show Less
LibraryThing member arubabookwoman
Life A User's Manual is one of my desert island books, so when I came across this short book in the library I checked it out. Perec collaborated with documentary filmmaker Robert Bober, and in 1978 accompanied him on a visit to Ellis Island. The book begins with a short factual introduction giving
Here's a brief excerpt of the prose poem:
This was the golden door
right there, in sight, almost at hand,
was the America of a thousand dreams,
the land of freedom where all men were equal,
the place where everyone could finally have his chance,
the new world, the free world,
where life could start over again
but this was not America, not yet,
only an extension of the boat,
a remnant of the old world
where nothing had yet been assured,
where those who had left
still hadn't arrived,
where those who had given up everything
had so far obtained nothing
This was a slight book, but I enjoyed it.
3 stars
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a brief history of Ellis Island followed by a "prose poem" by Perec about Ellis Island and his visit. Access to America was more or less free until 1875, and then gradually restrictive measures were added. Still, between 1892 and 1924 16 million people passed through the Ellis Island reception center: "Essentially Ellis Island was a sort of factory for manufacturing Americans." I learned the difference between E-migrant (leaving a country) and I-mmigrant (arriving in a new country), which I had never thought of before.Here's a brief excerpt of the prose poem:
This was the golden door
right there, in sight, almost at hand,
was the America of a thousand dreams,
the land of freedom where all men were equal,
the place where everyone could finally have his chance,
the new world, the free world,
where life could start over again
but this was not America, not yet,
only an extension of the boat,
a remnant of the old world
where nothing had yet been assured,
where those who had left
still hadn't arrived,
where those who had given up everything
had so far obtained nothing
This was a slight book, but I enjoyed it.
3 stars
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Subjects
Language
Original language
French
ISBN
9780811229548