Self-Portrait Abroad (Netherlandic and Belgian Literature) - Softcover

Toussaint, Jean-Philippe

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1564785866 ISBN 13: 9781564785862

Publisher: Dalkey Archive Press, 2010

Synopsis

Even on holiday, sex and death are Jean-Philippe Toussaint s constant companions...

About this title

About the Author:

Jean-Philippe Toussaint is the author of nine novels, and the winner of numerous literary prizes, including the Prix Decembre for "The Truth about Marie". His writing has been compared to the works of Samuel Beckett, Jacques Tati, the films of Jim Jarmusch, and even Charlie Chaplin.

From Publishers Weekly:

Toussaint's (The Bathroom) slender, charming travelogue pursues the wistful impressions of a writer as he observes the random passing of time and events in foreign capitals. The narrator is a middle-aged French author, tall and very Prince of Savoie, as he wryly describes himself, touching down briefly in Tokyo, Hong Kong, Berlin, Prague, and Tunisia for meetings with friends and to attend literary functions. His wife, Madeleine, and two children appear fleetingly, but, mostly, we follow the narrator as he, among other things, holds on for dear life on a motorcycle driven by a tour guide through traffic-choked Hanoi; accompanies a passionate Francophile and skillful go-between to a Japanese strip bar; and befriends two stranded women archeologists in Tunisia, who hitch a ride with him to Sfaz, where he gives a reading of his really rather wonderful books. Toussaint is a love-him or hate-him kind of writer, and this book perfectly illustrates why: there's no plot, and the narrator can be seen as either funny, sharply observant, and perhaps ingeniously ironic, or a clueless, narcissistic windbag. (May)
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About this edition

• Publisher: Dalkey Archive Press
• Publication date: 2010
• ISBN 10: 1564785866
• ISBN 13: 9781564785862
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 84