The Mise-En-Scene

by Claude Ollier, Dominic Di Bernardi (Translator), Dominic Di Bernardi (Afterword)

Overview

Part detective novel, part investigation into the nature of knowledge, set in the mountains of Morocco when the French still controlled North Africa.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781564782328
Publisher:	Deep Vellum Publishing
Publication date:	02/01/2000
Pages:	248
Product dimensions:	6.03(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.81(d)

About the Author

Claude Ollier, one of the major forces behind the "nouveau roman" and recipient of several prestigious literary awards, including the Prix Me decis, is the author of more than twenty books of fiction, drama, memoir, and criticism.

In addition to several of Jacques Roubaud s books, Dominic Di Bernardi has translated works by Louis-Ferdinand Celine, Muriel Cerf, Claude Ollier, and Patrick Grainville, among others.

In addition to several of Jacques Roubaud s books, Dominic Di Bernardi has translated works by Louis-Ferdinand Celine, Muriel Cerf, Claude Ollier, and Patrick Grainville, among others.

Editorial Reviews

"It is remarkable that it has taken thirty years for a translation of La Mise-en-Scene to appear.... This novel comes as close to perfection as a novel ever can; not a word or sentence is wasted, and the reader could continue unearthing symmetries and resonances for a very long time." --Ivan Hill,Times Literary Supplement

Dalkey Archive Press

"One of the best as well as the most influential of the new novels.... Skillfully translated by Dominic Di Bernardi..... The novel is a demonstration of the complexity of reality, and the impossibility of knowing for certain the true meaning of a chain of events.... A rich voyage of discovery of the human psyche... by one of the most original authors in modern France." --Dick Leonard,Washington Times

Dalkey Archive Press

"The minute description of every sight and sound is a send-up of 19th-century French realism; in this case appearances reveal nothing but their own appearance.... The translator has done a praiseworthy job in bringing this novel to the English reading public, for Claude Ollier remains one of the most significant writers among the New Novelists in recent French literature." --Choice

Dalkey Archive Press

From the Publisher

One of the best as well as the most influential of the new novels. . . . Skillfully translated by Dominic Di Bernardi. . . . . The novel is a demonstration of the complexity of reality, and the impossibility of knowing for certain the true meaning of a chain of events. . . . A rich voyage of discovery of the human psyche . . . by one of the most original authors in modern France.
Dick Leonard, Washington Times, 7/4/88

Washington Times

The minute description of every sight and sound is a send-up of 19th-century French realism; in this case appearances reveal nothing but their own appearance. . . . The translator has done a praiseworthy job in bringing this novel to the English reading public, for Claude Ollier remains one of the most significant writers among the New Novelists in recent French literature.
Choice, 9/88

Choice

It is remarkable that it has taken thirty years for a translation of La Mise-en-Scne to appear. . . . This novel comes as close to perfection as a novel ever can; not a word or sentence is wasted, and the reader could continue unearthing symmetries and resonances for a very long time.
Ivan Hill, Times Literary Supplement

Ivan Hill

The Mise-en-Scne is close to being the masterpiece expressing that most subjective of human passions: anguish.
Les Lettres Franaises

Les Lettres Franaises

A French engineer's journey into uncharted Moroccan mountains forms the action of this important exemplar of the nouveau roman, awarded the Prix Medicis in 1958. As the title indicates, Lassalle's missionfinding a road site to reach a mineis played out in the sinister ``theater'' of colonial mistrust and violence. Fatigued by migraines, sore throats and bruises, Lassalle is first escorted by the French military who rule in North Africa, and later by two Algerian guides, the blue-eyed Serjeant Ba Iken and the mute boy Ichou. In the sullen heat, the sense of menace thickens: a young woman, Jamila, has been stabbed to death by her husband. Her image keeps recurring to Lassalle, as he confuses her with a living girl, Yamina. The authorities seem as cynically indifferent to the crime as they do to the disappearance only days before of another engineer, Lassalle's predecessor, Lessing. Was he murdered? Was his death linked to Jamila's? As Lassalle confronts the natives and negotiates the terrain, struggling to match endless trails and gullies to the crisscrossings on his maps, his feelings of alienation and anxiety intensify to produce a powerfully hallucinatory novel. (May)

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly