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Five Frenchmen go off to war, two of them leaving behind a certain young woman who longs for their return. But the main character in 1914 is the Great War itself. Jean Echenoz, the multi-award-winning French literary magician whose work has been compared to Joseph Conrad and Lawrence Sterne, has brought that deathtrap back to life, leading us gently from a balmy summer day deep into the insatiable—and still unthinkable—carnage of trench warfare.
With the delicacy of a miniaturist and with irony both witty and clear-eyed, the author offers us an intimate epic with the atmosphere of a classic movie: in the panorama of a clear blue sky, a biplane spirals suddenly into the ground; a tardy piece of shrapnel shears the top off a man's head as if it were a soft-boiled egg; we dawdle dreamily in a spring-scented clearing with a lonely shell-shocked soldier strolling innocently to a firing squad ready to shoot him for desertion.
But ultimately, the grace notes of humanity in 1914 rise above the terrors of war in this beautifully crafted tale that Echenoz tells with discretion, precision, and love.
With the delicacy of a miniaturist and with irony both witty and clear-eyed, the author offers us an intimate epic with the atmosphere of a classic movie: in the panorama of a clear blue sky, a biplane spirals suddenly into the ground; a tardy piece of shrapnel shears the top off a man's head as if it were a soft-boiled egg; we dawdle dreamily in a spring-scented clearing with a lonely shell-shocked soldier strolling innocently to a firing squad ready to shoot him for desertion.
But ultimately, the grace notes of humanity in 1914 rise above the terrors of war in this beautifully crafted tale that Echenoz tells with discretion, precision, and love.
Price: $14.99
Pages: 128
Publisher: The New Press
Imprint: The New Press
Publication Date:
07 January 2014
ISBN: 9781595589248
Format: eBook
Praise for 1914:
"Echenoz's nod to the powerlessness of ordinary people caught in the first great modern cataclysm is a veritable monument to human dignity."
Gary Indiana, Bookforum
"This new novel from Jean Echenoz concentrates and synthesizes the quintessence of his writing."
—Le Monde
Praise for Jean Echenoz:
"One of the best storytellers among the 'serious' novelists of his generation."
—Context
"Echenoz is one of the contemporary literature's rare graceful magicians. . . . He might easily be located in the post-human environs of Michael Houellebecq [and] Haruki Murakami."
—Bookforum
"A gentle tending to perversity links Echenoz to that other master of the perverse detail, Vladimir Nabokov."
—Los Angeles Times
"Every word is perfectly placed; the writing is fluid . . . like a garment that fits perfectly even inside out..."
—Elle
"The most distinctive voice of his generation and the master magician of the contemporary French novel."
—The Washington Post
"Writing lives! [Echenoz's] words are full of grace and surprises, and he has the ability to throw relationships among them just off-center enough to make the images or people they convey seem all the more compelling and fresh."
—The New York Times Book Review
"A writer at the top of his form . . . his style is, as usual, impeccable, full of finesse and promise."
—Le Monde
"[O]ne of the best storytellers among the “serious” novelists of his generation. . . . Echenoz has shown that an attention to novelistic intrigue is by no means incompatible with an experimentalist impulse."
—Context
"Against a pungently evoked French landscape, figures both comical and grotesque move through a magic-lantern adventure story at a pace that keeps us turning the pages—though again and again we pause to savor the richness of Echenoz's startling, crystalline observations. Never a dull moment!"
—Lydia Davis
"A humanist rewriting Foucault with a satirist's wit, Echenoz deftly and amusingly meditates on who we are and what defines us."
—Village Voice
"Echenoz employs almost no dialogue and nothing that departs from known facts in this tiny miracle of a biographical novel, which begins dryly and builds to a shattering, but still contained and elegant, emotional climax, like a Ravel masterpiece."
—Booklist
"This is a wholly unsentimental portrait of a freaky inventor. Our sympathy is not required; all Echenoz requires is our attention, which he secures through his lapidary prose, buffed to a high gloss in this excellent translation."
—Kirkus Reviews
"Echenoz picks out the absurd nuances of pop culture and twists them into a contemporary detective book. . . . A hilarious read."
—Publisher's Weekly
"Rarely has the difficult craft of storytelling been as well mastered."
—The Times Literary Supplement
"Jean Echenoz has a terrific sense of humor tinged with existential mischief. . . . An author in total control of his material."
—L'Express
"His realism is innocent, meticulous, ironic. . . . Seldom is a narrative so well constructed."
—Le Figaro
"[A] fascinating portrait of a musical genius, a strange and lonely character who was never at peace with himself."
—France Today
"Magnificent."
—Magazine Litteraire
"Vivid and extraordinary."
—La Croix
"Dazzling, meticulous, and somber."
—Télérama
"Echenoz's nod to the powerlessness of ordinary people caught in the first great modern cataclysm is a veritable monument to human dignity."
Gary Indiana, Bookforum
"This new novel from Jean Echenoz concentrates and synthesizes the quintessence of his writing."
—Le Monde
Praise for Jean Echenoz:
"One of the best storytellers among the 'serious' novelists of his generation."
—Context
"Echenoz is one of the contemporary literature's rare graceful magicians. . . . He might easily be located in the post-human environs of Michael Houellebecq [and] Haruki Murakami."
—Bookforum
"A gentle tending to perversity links Echenoz to that other master of the perverse detail, Vladimir Nabokov."
—Los Angeles Times
"Every word is perfectly placed; the writing is fluid . . . like a garment that fits perfectly even inside out..."
—Elle
"The most distinctive voice of his generation and the master magician of the contemporary French novel."
—The Washington Post
"Writing lives! [Echenoz's] words are full of grace and surprises, and he has the ability to throw relationships among them just off-center enough to make the images or people they convey seem all the more compelling and fresh."
—The New York Times Book Review
"A writer at the top of his form . . . his style is, as usual, impeccable, full of finesse and promise."
—Le Monde
"[O]ne of the best storytellers among the “serious” novelists of his generation. . . . Echenoz has shown that an attention to novelistic intrigue is by no means incompatible with an experimentalist impulse."
—Context
"Against a pungently evoked French landscape, figures both comical and grotesque move through a magic-lantern adventure story at a pace that keeps us turning the pages—though again and again we pause to savor the richness of Echenoz's startling, crystalline observations. Never a dull moment!"
—Lydia Davis
"A humanist rewriting Foucault with a satirist's wit, Echenoz deftly and amusingly meditates on who we are and what defines us."
—Village Voice
"Echenoz employs almost no dialogue and nothing that departs from known facts in this tiny miracle of a biographical novel, which begins dryly and builds to a shattering, but still contained and elegant, emotional climax, like a Ravel masterpiece."
—Booklist
"This is a wholly unsentimental portrait of a freaky inventor. Our sympathy is not required; all Echenoz requires is our attention, which he secures through his lapidary prose, buffed to a high gloss in this excellent translation."
—Kirkus Reviews
"Echenoz picks out the absurd nuances of pop culture and twists them into a contemporary detective book. . . . A hilarious read."
—Publisher's Weekly
"Rarely has the difficult craft of storytelling been as well mastered."
—The Times Literary Supplement
"Jean Echenoz has a terrific sense of humor tinged with existential mischief. . . . An author in total control of his material."
—L'Express
"His realism is innocent, meticulous, ironic. . . . Seldom is a narrative so well constructed."
—Le Figaro
"[A] fascinating portrait of a musical genius, a strange and lonely character who was never at peace with himself."
—France Today
"Magnificent."
—Magazine Litteraire
"Vivid and extraordinary."
—La Croix
"Dazzling, meticulous, and somber."
—Télérama
Jean Echenoz won France's prestigious Prix Goncourt for I'm Gone (The New Press). He is the author of six previous novels in English translation 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 Lightning. She was the recipient of the French–American Foundation's 2008 Translation Prize for her translation of Echenoz's Ravel. She lives in Brooklyn.