Camera [Paperback]

Jean-Philippe Toussaint (Author), Matthew B. Smith (translator) (Editor)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 17, 2008

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.

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.)
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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.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 125 pages
• Publisher: Dalkey Archive Press; First English Translation edition (November 17, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 156478522X
• ISBN-13: 978-1564785220
• Product Dimensions: 7 x 5 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #269,993 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A Charming Novella, March 23, 2009

By 

Elizabeth Hendry (New Jersey USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Camera (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.