Hortense Is Abducted

by Jacques Roubaud

Book Overview

-- First paperback edition. -- In this madcap metafictional mystery a 22-year-old philosophy student (Hortense) is kidnapped and a dog is murdered -- the imaginary country of Poldevia is somehow... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0916583384
• ISBN13: 9780916583385
• Release Date: July 1989
• Publisher: Dalkey Archive Press
• Length: 229 Pages
• Weight: 1.10 lbs.

Customer Reviews

i love jacques roubaud

i received "Some Thing Black" by Roubaud for my birthday a couple of years ago from my best friend who decided that this book of poems looked like something i would like because of the minimalist cover design...needless to say, i loved it and decided to buy more by jacques roubaud...i started with this book "Hortense Is Abducted" and found it to be a drastic emotional change from "Some Thing Black." Both books are so well done. "Something..." is distinctly sad and enables the reader to explore through Roubaud's words how the death of one whom one is so close to can disrupt our sense of the world. "Hortense.."; however, is extremely witty. While reading it, I begin to laugh randomly, causing alarm to my mom who wonders what I am doing in my room that is so ridiculous. Roubaud certainly has a style all of his own; he treats the reader as a personal aquintance and makes comments on the side that are truly entertaining. I do not believe I have ever been more entertained by an author, nor have i ever felt as close to one after finishing his book. I believe if I were walking down the street and ran into Roubaud that it would feel like running into a good friend who i share many inside jokes with. His ability to make the reader feel this way is a major accomplishment that i have never witnessed any other author be able to do. I think, because of his writing, I have fallen for Jacques Roubaud.

How to visit Paris and a new kind of litterature

The story? It doesn't really matter. Yes, it's a kind of detective book. With a real french inspector. There's a murder (someone killed a dog). There's a beautiful heroin (with no description, but only imagination). But what you have to savour, are words. Words and atmosphere. As a French person, I really rediscover the place i leave in (it takes place in the Marais). And the characters are so true! If you want to appreciate the parisian cafe atmosphere, some of our every day dysfunctionnement (how to get a book in a library), and so many thing. The way the book is written is amazing. I really wonder how it had been translate, because there are so many subtleties... It's a great book, written by a french contemporary writer, member of the OuLiPo group (with Queneau, Perec, Fournel...)and is representative of this trend.