Mountain R (French Literature) - Softcover

Jouet, Jacques

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1564783308 ISBN 13: 9781564783301

Publisher: Dalkey Archive Press, 2004

Synopsis

In an unnamed country, the President of the Republican Council, wanting to "do something big," strikes upon the idea of building a 1,500-meter high mountain as an inspirational monument to national greatness. Construction of the mountain will reduce unemployment, attract hordes of tourists, and the idea can even be exported for sale to other countries. Mountain R relates the rise and fall of this insane project through the eyes of those involved over several decades: the President whose double-talk sets the plan in motion, a worker who, years later, tells his daughter about the disastrous consequences of the never-completed mountain, and an author commissioned to write a novel about the project. An incisive satire about the dangers of half-witted government officials who use political rhetoric to manipulate the patriotism of their constituents, Mountain R is a humorous yet disturbing allegory quite appropriate to our times.

About this title

About the Authors

Jacques Jouet was elected to the Oulipo in 1983. He is the author of more than sixty texts in a variety of genres-novels, poetry, plays, literary criticism, and short fiction-including the novels Mountain R (part of his La Re?publique roman cycle), Savage, and Upstaged, all published by Dalkey Archive.

Brian Evenson is the chair of the MFA program at Brown. He is the author of The Open Curtain, Altman's Tongue, and Fugue State, among others. His work has won the American Library Best Horror Novel award, and has been nominated for an International Horror Award. He is known for intelligent, sharp prose that takes what we know of the world and turns it upside down.

Reviews

A novel written entirely in dialogue, without conventional punctuation or a single traditionally described physical scene: is this an exercise in pseudo-intellectual torture? Amazingly, not at all. Jouet's short satirical novel is an innovative melding of genresâ€"part play and part novellaâ€"that entirely succeeds in roping the reader in despite its unconventional structure. The book unfolds in three parts, similar to the acts of a play. Set in a fictional republic, it tells the story of government project Mountain R. The book opens with a speech by the "President of the Republican Council," who appears, full of rhetorical swagger, expounding the virtues of his new and ludicrous pet project ("our capital looks like a flat-chested girl... but we are going to alter her"). The idea: build a 1,500-meter-high mountain to fix the region's financial and social woes. But the scheme is not so simple, and soon it begins to unravel. There are coverups, payola, forced labor, unsafe lodging given to exploited foreign workers, prostitution rings and murders. Some of the corruption is revealed by Mr. Muratore, a former senior construction chief on Mountain R, during a long conversation with his daughter. But Muratore reveals himself as diabolical by day's end, and the third section of the novel begins with the trial of those involved in the Mountain R fiasco. The prime witness is writer Stephane, who set out to write a novel based on the project. Jouet occasionally overburdens his allegory, but this is an invigorating readâ€"a novella of ideas that displays a nimble use of language and wit, and percolates with intellectual and creative energy.
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Edition details

• Publisher: Dalkey Archive Press
• Publication date: 2004
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1564783308
• ISBN 13: 9781564783301
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 143