4.0
The Queen's Caprice
ByPublisher Description
Seven short stories by the Prix Goncourt winner—“the most distinctive voice of his generation . . . master magician of the contemporary French novel” (The Washington Post).
France’s preeminent fiction writer, Jean Echenoz is celebrated for his ability to craft stories with such precision that readers are caught off guard by the intense emotion and imagination just beneath the placid surface of his writing. As Gary Indiana put it in his essay “Conjuror of St. Germain”, “Echenoz risks everything in his fiction, gambling on the prodigious blandishments of his voice to lure his readers into a maze of improbabilities and preposterous happenings.”
The Queen’s Caprice—seven stories available in English for the first time—reveals Echenoz at the height of his talents, taking readers on a journey across radically different landscapes. The title story explores a tiny corner of the French countryside; “Nelson” offers a brilliant miniaturist portrait of the hero of the Battle of Trafalgar; “In Babylon” sketches the ancient city of Mesopotamia, based on trace descriptions from Herodotus; and other stories visit the forests of England, the Luxembourg Gardens in Paris, Tampa Bay, and the interior of a submarine. Amid the thrill and allure of this voyage of words, “again and again we pause to savor the richness of Echenoz’s startling, crystalline observations” (Lydia Davis).
“[A] terrific sense of humor tinged with existential mischief.” —L’Express
France’s preeminent fiction writer, Jean Echenoz is celebrated for his ability to craft stories with such precision that readers are caught off guard by the intense emotion and imagination just beneath the placid surface of his writing. As Gary Indiana put it in his essay “Conjuror of St. Germain”, “Echenoz risks everything in his fiction, gambling on the prodigious blandishments of his voice to lure his readers into a maze of improbabilities and preposterous happenings.”
The Queen’s Caprice—seven stories available in English for the first time—reveals Echenoz at the height of his talents, taking readers on a journey across radically different landscapes. The title story explores a tiny corner of the French countryside; “Nelson” offers a brilliant miniaturist portrait of the hero of the Battle of Trafalgar; “In Babylon” sketches the ancient city of Mesopotamia, based on trace descriptions from Herodotus; and other stories visit the forests of England, the Luxembourg Gardens in Paris, Tampa Bay, and the interior of a submarine. Amid the thrill and allure of this voyage of words, “again and again we pause to savor the richness of Echenoz’s startling, crystalline observations” (Lydia Davis).
“[A] terrific sense of humor tinged with existential mischief.” —L’Express
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Meet readers like you in the Fable For You feed, designed to build bookish communities3 Reviews
4.0
Marianne Lévesque
Created 12 months agoShare
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Michael Wong
Created over 6 years agoShare
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“The titular story could be a real historical account. I'm also reading "SPQR" by Mary Beard and Echenoz's story of Herodotus seems just as valid historically as Beard's, only TQC is more meta, has better humor and better narration/prose. Not that SPQR isn't good but TQC is more meta with better humor and better narration/prose.
I believe it to be [likely completely/who knows if it's] true in the same way Weekend Update or the Daily Show is completely true, and similarly the "actual" truth is no more true than WU or DS; only TQC is more meta, with not as good of humor and slightly better narration/prose.
"Twenty Women in the Jardin du Luxembourg, Clockwise" might be the best fiction I've ever read. Except "10:04". Except Faulkner. Except...You get it. Except it's the best. Except...
"Marguerite d'Angoulême:...pleasant but affected"
"...and whose name was, why not, Valentine Anderson"
"...that recourse to Nefertiti might be a vaguely metonymic way..."”
iremmkuyucu
Created about 9 years agoShare
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About Jean Echenoz
Jean Echenoz won France's prestigious Prix Goncourt for I'm Gone (The New Press). He is the author of eleven novels in English translation?including 1914, Big Blondes, Lightning, Piano, Ravel, and Running, all published by The New Press?and the winner of numerous literary prizes, among them the Prix Médicis and the European Literature Jeopardy Prize. He lives in Paris. Linda Coverdale's most recent translation for The New Press was Jean Echenoz's 1914. She was the recipient of the French-American Foundation's 2008 Translation Prize for her translation of Echenoz's Ravel (The New Press). She lives in Brooklyn.
Other books by Jean Echenoz
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