Mountain R

by Jacques Jouet, Brian Evenson (Translator)

In an unnamed country, the President of the Republican Council, wanting to "do something big," strikes upon the idea of building a 1,500-meter high mountain as an inspirational monument to national greatness. Construction of the mountain will reduce unemployment, attract hordes of tourists, and the idea can even be exported for sale to other countries. Mountain R relates the rise and fall of this insane project through the eyes of those involved over several decades: the President whose double-talk sets the plan in motion, a worker who, years later, tells his daughter about the disastrous consequences of the never-completed mountain, and an author commissioned to write a novel about the project. An incisive satire about the dangers of half-witted government officials who use political rhetoric to manipulate the patriotism of their constituents, Mountain R is a humorous yet disturbing allegory quite appropriate to our times.

Elected to the Oulipo in 1983, Jacques Jouet is the author of more than sixty texts in a variety of genres- novels, poetry, plays, literary criticism, and short fiction. Mountain R is part of Jouet's La République roman, a cycle of novels that also includes Fins (Ends), Une réunion pour le nettoiement (A Meeting for Cleansing), and La République de Mek-Ouyes (The Republic of Myass).

Genres: France, Fiction, Literature

143 pages, Paperback

First published February 1, 1996

About the author

Jacques Jouet is a French writer and has been a participating member of the Oulipo literary project since 1983.

He is a poet, novelist, short story writer, playwright, essayist, and plasticine artist specializing in collages. As a member of l'Oulipo, Jouet became its focus in June 2009 when he began publicly writing a serialized novel in five days. He first became involved with Oulipo in 1978, stemming from a writing course directed by Paul Fournel, Georges Perec, and Jacques Roubaud.

His serial The Republic of Mek Ouyes was broadcasted simultaneously on radio and on the web, through the site of his publisher, P.O.L.

Jouet wrote Poèmes de métro while riding the underground trains of the Paris Métro.

Reviews

[MJ Nicholls · Rating 4 out of 5]

Oulipo with teeth. Part of Jouet’s la République roman series—a series unavailable in English, though two other Jouet books are out from Dalkey—this is an inventive satire of a corrupt Republican who elects to erect a public mountain for his own delusional purposes. Recent parallels in UK politics include Boris Johnson’s proposed “Tower of Boris” for the 2012 Olympics, and Edinburgh council spending £8m on a tram system.

Insert your country’s insane fund-spunking here. The novel is told from three POVs in a ‘before-during-after’ structure, and the cosy satire gives way into something more sinister, inverting our opinion of these funny, strange characters. Clever, Swiftian and swift.

[PaperBird]

Did a review of this book here: https://youtu.be/78ToXfyhZqE

[jeremy · Rating 4 out of 5]

mountain r, a satirical send-up of political corruption, greed, malfeasance, and exploitation, is cleverly conceived and well-written. jacques jouet, french novelist, poet, playwright, and member of oulipo, is rather skilled at infusing his works with a balance of both the tragic and the droll. told in three parts and composed almost entirely of dialogue, mountain r is an allegory of the governmental excess and venality that befouls much and infects many. employing the mountain as an obvious (and most fitting) metaphor, jouet adeptly plays with notions of artifice and concealment.

[Peter · Rating 2 out of 5]

Disappointingly flat. Folly and vice are satirized, but in prose of surprising dullness.

The butt of the satire – a grandiose national project to build a new mountain that becomes in every way a mass of corruption – seems too easy a target, though Jouet still manages to miss it, humourlessly sifting through doubtfully connected depravities and sins. Maybe some hidden Oulipian constraint was in play? If so, no good has come of it. I was anticipating something a lot more original, entertaining, and startling than this brief squib.

[Ronald Morton · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very good, very funny, very cynical book.

Basically a book about a (economically and socially) troubled Republic, that, in order to transcend their troubles, decides to build a 1500 meter mountain. It has no purpose except to be monumental, and to cause work, and to help the Republic be seen as doing something.

It, of course, does not go as planned.

This is a quick read, but is worth checking out both for the political satire as well as for the humor. Though, I will say, it is a bit fucked up, so, you know, be warned.

[Brent Legault · Rating 3 out of 5]

A bit light, a bit breezy, a bit too much like the pun its title makes (in French). Still, it was strange in both style and subject, and that made it not a total flop. Plus, it's a Dalkey, and I have a soft spot for Dalkeys.

[David · Rating 5 out of 5]

Lean witty efficient little novel. A quick read that yet manages to sketch and interrogate many layers of life: personal, political, corporate, public.

I hope more of Jouet's work is translated soon.

[Tuck · Rating 4 out of 5]

a nice satire on the ronaldreganification of public life. the brutality and sexual violence i didn't really understand. why did author have this in here? it didn't seem to fit with the farcical(?) idea to build a garbage mountain to stimulate the economy.

[Chris · Rating 1 out of 5]

Eh. Not at as clever or interesting as it wanted to be.