Chopin's Move

by Jean Echenoz

Book Overview

With his trademark comically wry phrasing and a sure eye for quirky detail, Echenoz has produced his oddest and most enjoyable novel to date. Chopin's Move interweaves the fates of Chopin, entomologist and recalcitrant secret agent; Oswald, a young foreign-affairs employee who vanishes en route to his new home; Suzy, who gets enmeshed in a tangle of deceit and counterdeceit; the mysterious Colonel Seck, whose motivations are never quite what they...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1564783340
• ISBN13: 9781564783349
• Release Date: April 2004
• Publisher: Dalkey Archive Press
• Length: 135 Pages
• Weight: 0.46 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.4" x 5.5" x 7.9"
• Grade Range: Postsecondary and higher

Customer Reviews

Gifted Writer on a Lark

Jean Echenoz's work has received many high-browed prizes in French literature, so I was a little surprised at how slight a project CHOPIN'S MOVE was. It is the work of a gifted writer having fun with a genre romp. As with Jonathan Lethem's similarly-minded book, Gun, with Occasional Music, the results are amusing, but ultimately, somewhat exasperating. With Echenoz, much of the fun for the reader lies in the odd turns of phrase that one wants to credit him for... as opposed to an inventive translator! But in the end, the punning (our entomologist-protagonist works with bugs, and as a spy, also plants them, get it?) and silliness just sort of wore me down. It's one thing for a writer to enjoy a good lark, but as a reader, I suppose I wasn't quite in the right mood. Nonetheless, Francophiles, word lovers, and devotees of spy literature will find this book enjoyable.

A distinguished narrative with twists that keep on coming

Chopin's Move is an intriguing novel following Chopin, an entomologist and reluctant secret agent; Oswald, a foreign-affairs employee who mysteriously vanishes; Ozwald's wife Suzy, whose relations with Chopin enmesh her within a shroud of deceit; and more colorful, neurotic, off-kilter or ever-so-slightly screwy individuals. Written with a keen tongue-in-cheek taste for wry humor and nuances of detail, Chopin's Move is a distinguished narrative with twists that keep on coming.