Strange Landscape

by Tony Duvert, Sam Flores (Translator)

Text: English, French (translation)

Genres: France, Fiction, Queer

265 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1973

About the author

Tony Duvert is a French writer born in 1945. Polemist and champion of the rights of the children to have a right to their own body and sexuality, on which he’s published two controversial books of essays, Good Sex Illustrated (1974), L'Enfant au Masculin (1980), though these themes greatly shape his novels. He received the Prix Médicis in 1973 for his novel Paysage du Fantasie (published in America by Grove in 1976 as Strange Landscape). And in 1978, he published with the Éditions Fata Morgana, two works of prose poetry and short texts: District and Les Petits Métiers.

Reviews

[ouliana · Rating 5 out of 5]

the most insecure, disgusting, dirty, nasty, violent book i've ever read

but it's so poetic and bewitching, i couldn't stop eating the pages

[Bren · Rating 5 out of 5]

riyl:
terayama, pasolini (soooo much poop), the wilder reveries of von rezzori (i might be stretching it with that one), obviously dennis cooper, pinget 'the inquisitory'/oulipo in general, my impressions of what 'hogg' reads like (need to get to that one soon).

comparisons are lazy but i think this one is really something special, gnarled and ugly and so eager to make you feel it, beyond what could possibly be helpful for the reader or for duvert. will have to turn this one over

[Eric Willeforde · Rating 4 out of 5]

Beautiful language, to judge from this translation. Strong nouveau roman work. Strong sexual content also, so be warned.

[B. · Rating 3 out of 5]

The fascination in this text is mainly with the structure and the form Duvert chose to give it. That free flowing unending prose so free in fact one moment "I" means me and the next it means you. There were a lot of brilliant snippets. I like when he wrote at the end of one such full speed ahead snippet: I'm too farfuckingout even for myself some nights.

The content is all things meant to provoke and in that way almost blends into others of its kin. It's a caught-up-to-date 120 Days of Sodom in that regard, but some things thread overtly through it that surpass the kneejerk antagonism of it. The one thing that I thought over and over again while reading it is that the presence and reoccurrence of the sea must mean something. The sea is a constant part of this 'landscape,' perhaps the only actual geographical component besides the many rooms and floors and sprawling grounds of the Chateau. The sea seems to be everything. It is freedom, sure, and more specifically escape but it's death too, and the threat of unknowingness, and some more. Unlike the Chateau the sea is distinct from the body. The sea might be the only thing in the entire book that is distinct and separate from the body.

I have read that the only existing english translation is not very faithful, and am left wondering what was added, what was removed, how different what I read stands from the actual text. I wonder if I liked things, or hated things, that weren't even in it at all. I wonder what I missed. I can't do anything about it anyhow so I think I have to take what I got.

[Béatrice · Rating 1 out of 5]

J'ai complètement oublié de noter ce que j'ai pensé de ce livre, qui m'est littéralement tombé des mains. Si je me souviens bien, c'est l'écriture qui m'a dérangée et je n'ai pas continué ! Le titre était pourtant joli.

[Ripleyland · Rating 3 out of 5]

Meh.

[Malachi Buggs]

Calling it quits at page 100. Don’t have time for this.

[Gilles Russeil · Rating 3 out of 5]

Exercice de style littéraire, récit provocateur, fantasmes débridés issus des années 1970 libertaires. Un texte ovni dérangeant...mais captivant comme un accident de la circulation entraperçu...

[Charlie · Rating 4 out of 5]

La ponctuation elle semble être la base d'un texte compréhensible pourtant Tony Duvert nous prouve par ce texte relevant plutôt de l'exercice de style que d'un roman à proprement parler qu'on peut aisément s'en passer et rester cohérent pendant plus de deux cent cinquante pages

attention cependant cet ouvrage demande une concentration permanente afin de saisir l'extrême subtilité de l'histoire si on suppute qu'il y a ici une réelle histoire et je déconseille fortement la lecture entrecoupée préférez le lire d'une traite ou en deux jours sinon vous serez vite perdus parmi les innombrables changements de personne et de sujet

en effet Tony Duvert passe aisément de la première personne à la troisième personne et de personnage et de lieu sans crier gare mais apres un court temps d'adaptation l'esprit commence à jongler entre les différents paramètres mis en place et on termine tant bien que mal par s'y retrouver en définitive ce livre porte excellemment bien son nom et il n'y a d'autres manières de le définir que comme un pur paysage de fantaisie

[The Milk Man · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a good book, but people should read it in French. The English translation is completely rewritten, things are left out and A LOT of content was unrightfully added. It needs an actual first English translation.