596. A Man Asleep

A Man Asleep
Georges Perec
1967

Around 170 pages

I remember when I first learned about second person point of view, I was confused why anybody would choose to tell a story this way. Doesn't this get on everybody's nerves by the second page? And if I were going to participate in a novel, I wouldn't pick a Georges Perec story. But I actually enjoyed this more than our previous Perec works. He kept it short, which I think is essential with this point of view.

A 25-year-old student wakes up completely indifferent to the world. He hears the alarm, but doesn't get up for his exam. Which is a frequent nightmare of mine, even though I've graduated. So I didn't appreciate being put in this character's shoes. My anxiety doesn't need any story ideas for its night production schedule, thank you.

I like it when authors muse on sleep. Because it's Perec, you know he is going to be in his literary laboratory, performing all sorts of crazy experiments. This makes his books a bit of a chore, but this was much more readable than his previous work.

RATING: ***--

Interesting Facts:

Adapted into a 1974 film.

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