Customer Reviews

Le Pigeon

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Darker than Thurber's "The Secret Life of Walter Mitty" and more upbeat than Kafka's "The Metamorphosis," "The Pigeon" explores the internal crisis and ultimate redemption of Jonathan Noel. Noel is a man who up until now has lead a very organized, mundane, non-spectacular life in which his main goal is to avoid notice. He has concluded that " you cannot depend on people, and that you can live in peace only if you keep them at arm's length." One morning a pigeon appears at his doorway, shattering his careful calm routine and throwing him into a tailspin. Over the next 24 hours he undergoes a complete awakening. As "The Pigeon" opens he is almost a non-person; by the end of the book he has learned to enjoy his meager life. In a sense, "The Pigeon" is almost "Mrs. Dalloway," read backwards.

I liked "The Pigeon," though it reads like a play. I read an English translation but the language and descriptions were rich and evocative. Check it out of your library or find an old copy.