The Unforeseen

by Christian Oster, Adriana Hunter (Translator)

Written with his typical witty and delicate touch, Christian Oster's new novel pokes fun at the postmodern male's overrated sensitivity.

Oster’s stories are simple—at least if we mean stories that can be summarized in a few words. In the case of The Unforeseen, such a summary would begin like this: the narrator, who has a perpetual cold, lives with a woman who never catches a cold and so has the immediate intuition that the cold she has now, as the two of them drive together toward the sea at the opening of the novel, is a very bad omen indeed.

From the author of A Cleaning Woman, made into a film by Claude Berri, comes Oster’s new novel of perfect, erudite, and sometimes laughable sadness. Oster’s perceptive gaze, and the changing rhythm of his sentences, guide his reader through the psychological realism of obsession and desire. The honesty of emotion in The Unforeseen is matched only by its subversive intent.

Genres: France

257 pages, Paperback

First published March 4, 2005

About the author

Christian Oster was born in 1949. He is the author of over 15 novels, as well as numerous books for children. Among his titles, My Big Apartment (1999) won the prestigious Prix Médicis, and A Cleaning Woman (2001) was made into a feature film by Claude Berri. He lives in Paris.

Reviews

[Steve · Rating 4 out of 5]

Toward the end of The Unforeseen, the novel's more or less nameless narrator says, "it left me with an unpleasant feeling as if I had traveled and gone nowhere, and the whole journey was reduced to this impression of pointlessness." Traveling without arriving is also a big part of the experience of reading this novel, but although at times it indeed seemed pointless, I ultimately thought that withheld arrival made for a challenging but satisfying read. The novel develops one character, setting, and situation after another only to abandon each of them just when it seems they will be important to the narrator's ambling course. But the story is all about delaying the inevitable, whether that's illness, arrival, the dissolution of a failing relationship, death, or the end of a novel -- even a novel that refuses to arrive. While the narrator isn't exactly a likable fellow, I enjoyed being in his thick, selfish head for a while to indulge the narcissistic but familiar impulse to abandon whatever we like whenever we like (and perhaps there's an authorial wink there, inviting the reader to abandon even the novel itself at times, but I'm glad I didn't).

[Chandra · Rating 1 out of 5]

I found this book at my local library on one of the displays showcasing some of the librarians' favorite books, which is usually a good way to find interesting, off-the-radar novels. I did not enjoy reading this book. I found the writing pretentious and laborious and the character self-absorbed. I am not sure why I felt compelled to finish reading this book . . . there is no book report due on Monday. Towards the end, I found myself skipping whole paragraphs and pages, looking for the quotation marks denoting conversation within the book.

[Americanogig · Rating 1 out of 5]

I picked this book up on a whim, I have found great novels this way. This was not a great novel. I'm not even quite sure it was a novel. I don't know what kind of psycho mindtrip this is supposed to be but it tried for unique insight and failed utterly. It has been years since I have read such dreck. After the fourth page of this guy obsessing about pharmicists and how it felt like they knew he was coming - I decided to quit. I have to rate it one star because I can't rate it less.

[Kim · Rating 1 out of 5]

If I could give this book a -1 I would. The run-on-and-on sentences drove me nuts. I did not even finish the book.

[Heather · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was better than I expected but not great by any means. very french.