Palafox

(Paperback)

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Eric Chevillard is a renowned contemporary author who is one of the most inventive young writers on the French literary scene. His third novel, Palafox, explores the ecosystem of an unclassifiable yet enchanting protean creature. A team of 'experts' armed with degrees of higher learning is determined to label, train, pamper, baptise and classify the elusive creature, while Palafox - driven by his own interior logic and flanked by another dimension for the most part on his side - effortlessly and wordlessly defies them all.

Reviews

Imagine . . . a comedy of manners, a supernatural tale, a sly commentary on sciences quest for knowl- edge, a sad story about a creature that seems to possess characteristics common to marsupials, reptiles, and amphibians, not to mention insects and humans, and you have an inkling of what Eric Chevillard has done in his dark, disturbing, delightful, downright funny story of Palafox. Now mix into this brew some of Ronald Firbanks verbal fireworks, Italo Calvinos imaginative flights of exquisite writing, and Raymond Roussels weird deadpan logic, and you get a little more of an inkling. And, if this is not enough to whet your appetite, imagine something new born under the sun. The sun, however, is shining on a dining table surrounded by people who you might, on a good day, call eccentric. John Yau

Mix together one pinch of surrealism, one pinch of situationalism, stir in a large measure of poetry, quite a bit of talent and you will get a glittering novel of intelligence and humor . . . Jean-Claude Lebrun, Rvolution

Eric Chevillard involves his reader in a powerful meditation on evil, foolishness, and inhumanity lurking in the heart of man. Jean-Maurice de Montremy, Lire

The current American new fabulism could learn a great deal from this very amusing book and its willingness to take real narrative risks...Beautifully translated by Wyatt Mason, Palafox is a must for anyone intersted in anti-realist fiction. Rain Taxi

Eric Chevillard involves his reader in a powerful meditation on evil, foolishness, and inhumanity lurking in the heart of man. Jean-Maurice de Montremy

Author Bio

Eric Chevillard is one of the most inventive authors writing in French today. His novels include On the Ceiling, The Crab Nebula, and Demolishing Nisard, all translated by Jordan Stump, and Palafox (Archipelago), translated by Wyatt Mason. Wyatt Mason has translated several books by Pierre Michon, including Masters and Servants (Mercury House, 1997) and The Origin of the World (Mercury House, 2002). His edition of Rimbaud's complete works in two volumes, Rimbaud Complete and I Promise to be Good, is published by Modern Library. In 2003, he was named a Fellow of the Dorothy and Lewis B. Cullman Center for Scholars and Writers of the New York Public Library.