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The Last DaysAuthor: Raymond Queneau Translator: Barbara Wright French Literature Series October 1990 250 pages, 5.5 x 8.5 Paperback, 1-56478-140-2 Retail Paperback Price: Our Paperback Price: $9.56 
Retail Hardcover Price: Our Hardcover Price: $15.96—20% OFF! Hardcover Temporarily Out of Stock |
Book Description
The Last Days is Raymond Queneau's autobiographical novel of Parisian student life in the 1920s: Vincent Tuquedenne tries to reconcile his love for reading with the sterility of studying as he hopes to study his way out of the petite bourgeoisie to which he belongs.
Vincent and his generation are contrasted with an older generation of retired teachers and petty crooks, and both generations come under the bemused gaze of the waiter Alfred, whose infallible method of predicting the future mocks prevailing scientific models. Similarly, Queneau's literary universe operates under its own laws, joining rigorous artistry with a warm evocation of the last days of a bygone world.
About the Author
| Raymond Queneau (1903-1976) is acknowledged as one of the most influential of modern French writers, having helped determine the shape of twentieth-century French literature, especially in his role with the Oulipo, a group of authors that includes Italo Calvino, Georges Perec, and Harry Mathews, among others. |  |
About the Translator
| Barbara Wright has translated several Queneau novels; indeed, as John Updike wrote in the New Yorker, she "has waltzed around the floor with the Master so many times by now that she follows his quirky French as if the steps were in English." She has also translated works by Alain Robbe-Grillet, Robert Pinget, Nathalie Sarraute, and Marguerite Duras. She lives in London. |
Praise
"The most important thing to say about The Last Days is that it works. Erudition is seldom welcome at the gates of satire, but the late Raymond Queneau's autobiographical novel of Parisian student life in the 1920s is profound, complex and instantly likable. It is also very, very funny."—Octavio Roca, Washington Times"The flavor of this French novelist's wit is wise and dolorous, like that of someone slightly regretful in the face of helpless recognitions . . . This novel, luminously rendered into English by Queneau's frequent translator Barbara Wright, demonstrates that the artifices of fiction are among the most satisfying and revealing of all of life's patterns."—New Yorker
"Queneau writes about this Gallic wasteland with his usual deadpan alley panache, a dextrous mix of neologisms ('subyelped'), malapropisms, and outrageous images that make you laugh and cringe."—Bill Marx, Boston Review
"A witty novel that is a witness both to Queneau's marvelous sense of humor and his capacity for self-examination."—Choice
"Dazzling in its wordplay."—Kirkus Reviews
"The mystery that occurs to me when reading this novel is why it has not been translated into English until now. Its one of the better all-around efforts by one of the major prose fiction writers of our century."—Harvey Pekar, San Diego Tribune
"It is an artfully crafted literary mosaic of oppositions and similarities (of characters, descriptions, attitudes, and perceptions) that emphasize the literary quality of this work. The finality evoked in the title is rich in potential for interpretation, as is the work itself. The use of puns and neologisms, as well as other stylistic and rhetorical devices characteristic of Queneau's work, have come to be recognized as uniquely his."—Library Journal
"Beguiling . . . Queneau's literary infractions . . . are not for the sake of novelty but for the sake of the novel."—Publishers Weekly