In this improbable love story, Toussaint creates a character who is obsessed with himself: how he does things and all the ways he might have done them, how he thinks, why he thinks the way that he thinks, how he might do or think otherwise. What happens? He takes driving lessons, goes grocery shopping, spends endless hours with an adorable employee of the driving school he attends. And though he is aloof, though caught up in his own actions and in the movement of his own thoughts—he somehow emerges as surprisingly insightful and also very funny. In Toussaint's touching novel, we come to know this character intimately and yet know almost nothing about him. These two extremes, existing together, are at the heart of Toussaint's remarkable style.
Browse the best books of summer including blockbusters, beach reads, and editors' picks in our Summer Reading Store. |
Book Description
Frequently Bought Together
Editorial Reviews
From Publishers Weekly
This sparse and stylized novel by Toussaint (Monsieur) pursues the listless cerebral meanderings of a Parisian man as he falls in love with the clerk at his driving-education school. The first-person narrator, who enjoys an uneventful life of indeterminate employment, reading newspapers and thinking, begins hanging out with the languid young lady at the driver's ed office, a sleepy divorced single mother named Pascale Polougaïevski. Throughout, the narrator's mind wanders (his thoughts are like a moving stream that is best left alone so that it can expand... creating innumerable and magnificent branchings), and while the two are on the ferry back to Dieppe, the narrator finds an abandoned Instamatic camera. Despite the dramatic ramifications of the titular find, the camera and the inexpert pictures taken with it turn out to hold no more significance than any other chance event. Absurdist and pretentious, Toussaint's close observations of nothing in particular possess a few hilarious moments, but the mundane is much more in evidence. (Nov.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
From School Library Journal
Does the American reader's desire for plot indicate a lack of sophistication? Considering that within France more contemporary literature translated from English is consumed than the homegrown, maybe not. It seems, rather, to suggest that interest in metafictional text has finally reached a level of exhaustion on the Continent. The acclaimed Toussaint arrives to the American market with a reputation for black humor, suggesting that his is a narrative art. However, this is only partially true. This third novel to be translated into English (after Monsieur) concerns an unnamed narrator who does remarkably little yet speculates a good deal about such doings. This we learn only from his overuse to the point of meaninglessness of the word pensive. At a slot machine: "pensively lowering the lever." On the pot: "I finally got out of the stall, still just as pensive." And what does he think about? Couldn't say. He becomes involved with a woman, whose name he does not ask until far along in their affair, and steals a camera while on vacation, though less is made of these events than the drudgery of his wholly uninteresting goings-on. Recommended for large fiction collections.—Brendan Curley, Brooklyn Coll.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Product Details
Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images? |
More About the Author
Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.
Customer Reviews
Share your thoughts with other customers
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Camera is a charming novella narrated by a seemingly shallow fellow who becomes entranced with a woman he meets at a driving school. The narration is interesting; at the beginning of the novel, he seems to be just reporting at face value random intervals of his life. As the novella progesses, he becomes more introspective and existential, less chatty. This is an interesting read that is perfect for this short length. A little thought provoking, always entertaining, and, perhaps most importantly, knows when to stop.
1 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
This is a very short read; it is only about 120 pages. Camera lacks any significant plot line and though it is occasionally humorous or absurd, it isn't engaging. First person point of view often allows the reader to quickly become intimate with the protagonist (and perhaps even feel as if he or she is the protagonist); however, this was not the case in Camera.
The narrator is completely engrossed in himself and even though there is a hint of a love story, nothing ever really comes of it because he is too involved in his own head. The metaphysical nature of the book and the protagonist's musings are interesting but will easily lose you if you fail to pay close attention. That is super irritating! I read this book mostly on the bus and I'm fairly easily distracted there, so I found myself having to reread a lot to keep up with what was going on.
Here's an example of his writing:
"She misunderstood my method, in my opinion, not realizing that my approach, rather obscure to those unfamiliar, was based on the idea that in my struggle with reality, I could exhaust any opponent with whom I was grappling, like one can wear out an olive, for example, before successfully stabbing it with a fork, and that my propensity not to hasten matters, far from having a negative effect, in fact prepared for me a fertile ground where, when things seemed ripe, I could make my move with ease."
That is all ONE sentence! See what I mean? Admittedly, this is an intriguing comparison (but really how many times do you stab an olive before you pop it in your mouth???).
Let's just say it's short but it's not easy and it reminds me of things I had to read for lit classes in college-a lot of the entertainment gets lost in the art.
The narrator is completely engrossed in himself and even though there is a hint of a love story, nothing ever really comes of it because he is too involved in his own head. The metaphysical nature of the book and the protagonist's musings are interesting but will easily lose you if you fail to pay close attention. That is super irritating! I read this book mostly on the bus and I'm fairly easily distracted there, so I found myself having to reread a lot to keep up with what was going on.
Here's an example of his writing:
"She misunderstood my method, in my opinion, not realizing that my approach, rather obscure to those unfamiliar, was based on the idea that in my struggle with reality, I could exhaust any opponent with whom I was grappling, like one can wear out an olive, for example, before successfully stabbing it with a fork, and that my propensity not to hasten matters, far from having a negative effect, in fact prepared for me a fertile ground where, when things seemed ripe, I could make my move with ease."
That is all ONE sentence! See what I mean? Admittedly, this is an intriguing comparison (but really how many times do you stab an olive before you pop it in your mouth???).
Let's just say it's short but it's not easy and it reminds me of things I had to read for lit classes in college-a lot of the entertainment gets lost in the art.
What Other Items Do Customers Buy After Viewing This Item?
Sell a Digital Version of This Book in the Kindle Store
If you are a publisher or author and hold the digital rights to a book, you can sell a digital version of it in our Kindle Store.
Learn more
Listmania!
|
|
