In Concrete

by Anne Garréta, Emma Ramadan (Translator)

Garreta’s first new novel in a decade follows two young sisters who are dragged into one adventure after another when their father finds himself in possession of a concrete mixer. As he seeks to modernize every aspect of their lives, disaster strikes when the younger sister, Poulette, is subsumed by concrete.

Through puns, wordplay, and dizzying verbal effect, Garreta reinvents the novel form and blurs the line between spoken and written language in an attempt to modernize – or fundamentally undercut – the elasticity of communication.

Genres: Fiction, France, Humor, Novels, Literary Fiction, Ebooks

152 pages, Kindle Edition

First published October 4, 2017

About the author

Anne F. Garréta (born 1962) is a French novelist and a member of the experimental literary group Oulipo. A graduate of France’s prestigious École normale supérieure and lecturer at the University of Rennes II since 1995, Anne F. Garréta was co-opted into the Oulipo in April 2000. She also teaches at Duke University as a Research Professor of Literature and Romance Studies. Her first novel, Sphinx (Grasset, 1986), hailed by critics, tells a love story between two people without giving any indication of grammatical gender for the narrator or the narrator’s love interest, A***. Her second novel, Ciels liquides (Grasset, 1990), tells the fate of a character losing the use of language. In La Décomposition (Grasset, 1999), a serial killer methodically murders characters from Marcel Proust’s In Search of Lost Time. She met Oulipian Jacques Roubaud in Vienna in 1993, and was invited to present her work at an Oulipo seminar in March 1994, and again in May 2000, which led to her joining the Oulipo. She won the Prix Médicis in 2002 for her novel Pas un jour. awarded each year to an author whose “fame does not yet match their talent” (she is the second Oulipian to win the award—Georges Perec won in 1978).

(from Wikipedia)

Reviews

[Richard Derus · Rating 5 out of 5]

Rating: 4.5* of five, rounded up because that laugh was so satisfying

I RECEIVED A DRC FROM THE PUBLISHER VIA EDELWEISS+. THANK YOU.

My Review: I'm old enough to remember reading Zazie dans le Métro by Raymond Queneau during the early-1980s height of Valley-Girl speak. It was snortingly urged on me by an older film-school-attending friend, whose encounter with Queneau's 1959 breakout novel was prompted by seeing Louis Malle's 1960 film of the same title. He said that Queneau did it better than the Valley Girls. I was, after reading Barbara Wright's translation, inclined to agree.

So here's Anne Garréta pulling the same stunt as Queneau, her spiritual godparent and co-founder of Oulipo, to which organization she belongs, pulled sixty years before. Is that hommage or le plagiat? After chortlesnorting my way through In Concrete, I'll go with hommage and a darn funny one at that.

I'm not at all sure, to be honest, that our narrator is a sex-linked girl; there's nothing in the text that specifically says she is, and there's a certain je ne sais quoi to the narrative voice that leads me to wonder if she isn't trans. It just *feels* that way. And given Queneau's Zazie has impeccable gaydar, ascertaining Gabriel is queer in seconds flat and constantly offering him chances to own up to it (he's a married drag entertainer, so there's your ambiguity for you) which he declines repeatedly (it was 1959), it would fit well with Mme Garréta's presumptive model and her earlier project (see above) for this to be so but unsaid.

Anyway. Manic energy, fun little not-quite-right malapropisms in a precocious kid's foul mouth, a family life that (for once) is loving while still being supremely dysfunctional...and all just as French as bœuf bourguignon. Does that sound like fun? I did to me, and I'm delighted to report that Translator Ramadan delivers verbal pyrotechnics that land just right. I know they did in French, not from having read them...waaay too advanced for me!...but because they were lauded by French critics for their anarchic jubilance. Having them come anywhere close to the original is a major achievement. Though not a surprise, given the nature of her translation of Sphinx as a linguistic exercise in French coming through in English as well.

Here, try this piece:

Lucky, they say, are those to whom the favor of the gods—or if not the favor of the gods then paternal klutziness—grants the privilege of experiencing things that deserve to be scribed!

Lucky also, it seems, are those who are entrusted to scribe on the tablets the things that deserved to be recorded, such as paternal klutziness and lapidary scatastrophes!

And even luckier are those, like Poulette and me, who are given the double privilege of finding themselves encased in greasy mortar and feeding the koalas.

Yup, the koalas . . .

Don't ask me why koalas . . . Can't you see it snot a good time?!

As for klutziness, if you don't know what that is, let's just say to keep it short that it's the specialty of generals, of top brass and rulers. But snot just them. Klutziness worms its way into everything. No need to be a high roller to be swimming in it. Klutziness has no end, no limit, and it's within the reach of any ol' poodle.

Epic klutziness, imperial klutziness, the lurid panache of klutziness pushed to heroic apogee and even to entropic scatastrophe—I fear we're the last of the klutzes.

We're not the last, are we, but we might just be looking at 'em.

[Jenny (Reading Envy) · Rating 4 out of 5]

This short book is so much about language - double meanings, puns, innuendo - the translator should receive all prizes for making it work in English.

The narrator is a 12 year old girl living with a father obsessed with concrete so there is a lot about it, but also living in rural areas, tinkering, absorbing beliefs/knowledge from the family surrounding you (some homophobia and racism are included although it's pretty clear the author is putting loaded language in the mouths of a child who doesn't understand it.)

Most of the time I could picture old male readers chuckling about each clever turn of phrase and that made me like it less (does anyone else ever imagine the perfect reader for a book?) plus what 12 year old would ever be able to make these jokes?

This is one of my last reads for the Tournament of Books shortlist (I still have many left on the long list) and as translated works go, I'm still Labatut forever. 4 stars for the book overall, 5 stars to the translator.

[Phyllis · Rating 5 out of 5]

[Edited to reflect my discovery, during the 2022 Tournament of Books, that I had assigned a female gender to the narrator with absolutely no basis for that.]

What an entertaining laugh-out-loud fast frolic, full of punnery and wordplay (in translation from French, amazingly enough). The narrator is a youngster girl, probably of a tween-ish age of 10 or 11. The entire story is of the hi-jinks the narrator she and her lil sis Angelique, a/k/a Poulette, get into on weekends and in summers spent in the country with their father in his wildly failing but never-ending efforts to restore or refurbish or rebuild anything and everything in their family's ambit, while their ever-patient mom tries mightily to just survive & evade the mechanical carnage and their grandma and grandpa provide a sufficient amount of order to keep things from spiraling totally out of control.

This is a family full of love. This is a novel full of bawdy scatalogical language misspoken and misinterpreted to extreme hilarity in looping digressions by a youngster girl in the last glorious throws of childhood imagination. There is no pretending that any child the age of this narrator ever spoke in the manner of the prose in this book, but just suspend your disbelief and climb on for the full-on headrush enjoyment of the ride!

As a hint of what Garreta and her amazing translator Ramadan provide, here is just a brief little excerpt:

Lucky, they say, are those to whom the favor of the gods -- or if not the favor of the gods then paternal klutziness -- grants the privilege of experiencing things that deserve to be scribed!

Lucky also, it seems, are those who are entrusted to scribe on the tablets the things that deserved to be recorded, such as paternal klutziness and lapidary scatastrophes!

And even luckier are those, like Poulette and me, who are given the double privilege of finding themselves encased in greasy mortar and feeding the koalas.

Yup, the koalas . . .

Don't ask me why koalas . . . Can't you see it snot a good time?!

As for klutziness, if you don't know what that is, let's just say to keep it short that it's the specialty of generals, of top brass and rulers. But snot just them. Klutziness worms its way into everything. No need to be a high roller to be swimming in it. Klutziness has no end, no limit, and it's within the reach of any ol' poodle.

Epic klutziness, imperial klutziness, the lurid panache of klutziness pushed to heroic apogee and even to entropic scatastrophe -- I fear we're the last of the klutzes.

Lucky! Quoth the optimists . . .

[João Reis · Rating 3 out of 5]

A great feat of translation by Emma Ramadan and an interesting take on language and wordplay. It has some funny moments, but the jokes grow stale and it ultimately gets a bit boring.
Anyway, it's an interesting short novel, and I recommend it if you enjoy languages and their manifold possibilities.

[Risa · Rating 2 out of 5]

Unlike my reading buddies, Phyllis and Bob, with whom I usually agree, this one was not for me. Puns do not a novel make, and this book was a pun-itive reading experience for me. (Sorry - not sorry.)

There are so many other books from the ToB Longlist I would’ve chosen over this for our shortlist. Sigh.

[Alex · Rating 3 out of 5]

A very challenging read and I appreciate the skill translating this work took, with all the word play used. I got lost at times and that disconnected me as a reader but definitely a curious book to tackle.

[jeremy · Rating 3 out of 5]

the third work from french novelist anne garréta rendered into english (after sphinx and not one day), in concrete (dans l'béton) finds the oulipian amply displaying her verbalist savvy. homophones, alliteration, plays on words, and puns aplenty make garréta's latest a logophile's dream come true. while in concrete didn't otherwise do much (for me), the clever, frequently hilarious wordplay is rather remarkable, as is the book's translation (don't miss the translator's note at the end).

but this, this was the scat's pajamas of scatastrophes. what we saw unfurl was essentially the end of days, the end of all setbacks and blowbacks. a free fall feetfirst into the apocalypse... into the fatal shitpit, if you like, which is to say into concrete.

*translated from the french by emma ramadan (garréta's sphinx and not one day, laroui, matthieussent, taïa, et al.)

[Matthew · Rating 3 out of 5]

An extravaganza of puns and wordplay that is entertaining but becomes overmuch as it goes along. The translation by Emma Ramadan is excellent.

[Heidi · Rating 3 out of 5]

Honestly, five stars for cleverness, but the absurd language and frequent imaginative excursions left me unsure what this little book is about or for. If you like a bit (or a lot) of language play and you don’t mind a storm of the things a thirteen year old would find humorous, then spending a few hours in the company of this narrator will be pleasant for you. War, excrement, imagination, honor, family. There’s something there, but I couldn’t quite access it.

Highly recommend reading the translator’s note (at the end) before you start reading. It told me what to expect in an extremely helpful way.

[Bob Lopez · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved this odd, odd story. Our narrator is a lovable, erudite weirdo--the puns, the plays on words, the digressions! Really enhanced what would've been an ordinary story (a weird one to be sure that, at its heart, is of his sister trapped in rapidly drying cement) and elevated to a rich and layered portrait of a family in turmoil. This book was just loads of fun.

[Cody · Rating 2 out of 5]

ATT: Anne Garréta
CO: Oulipo Central HQ, France, France

I had a whole shtick about this that I've up and forgotten and who really needs it anyway? Bottomline: boring as flies fucking. Sure, clever as the devil; Oulipian constraints sounded with incredible depth; etc. But, please Anne, say SOMETHING one of these days. A French family fucking is just too easy, and I can't imagine you don't have both style and substance somewhere in you. No matter how polyvalent, they’re always going to be just fucking puns. It’s exhausting. This is strike two.

As you're French: that's a baseball term. Three and you’re out/c'est tout/fin.

I wouldn't care about my opinion, either.

XO

[Alison Hardtmann · Rating 2 out of 5]

In Concrete is a playful, word-bending comically absurd novel by French author Anne Garréta, and brilliantly translated by Emma Ramadan. Two girls living in the countryside with their shambolic father and timid mother have adventures, mostly involving their father's activities with laying cement. What is important aren't the hijinks, but the wordplay, which is rapid and full of references and allusions. It's a very clever book. I was delighted with this book as I started it, but as I continued to read, I eventually just got tired of it. There's no substance behind the gloss and I could only read so far before longing for some sort of emotional substance.

[Dree · Rating 5 out of 5]

The narrator here is a 12-year-old girl, who talks of life in Paris with her parents and younger sister during the school year, and then out in the French countryside with her grandparents in the summers.

But this book is less about the story than it is about the wordplay. The wordplay is amazing. The misuse of similar-sounding words, the use of a slight misspelling to serve two purposes ("gramma" in one sentence can be read as "grammar" or "grandma", for example). Spellings changed slightly to make the sound of another word inside a larger word. So many ways to play with words, and they are here. It is often funny as well as being smart.

But this is also a book in translation, from French. That this could be translated at all fascinates me. There is an 8-page note from the translator at the end, explaining how they approached it. Due to the sounds of French, there is a lot of basic sound wordplay that is missing. The translator worked closely with the author to understand the multiple layers of play within some of her sentences, and then tried to replicate the most within the English. I do wonder how alike the English and French really are? Why was this not longlisted for any translation prizes? Because this is amazing--unless it is actually very different?

So while this book is really quite funny, it is also rather sad in some ways.

While the girls are loved, their father is a bit of a piece of work. He is constantly doing construction projects, and tends to have "mishaps" due to his lack of knowledge about electricity, his inability to plan anything, the desire (or need?) to never buy anything, and his "good enough" attitude. He regularly runs out of gas in his car, shocks himself frequently, and so forth. Their mother sounds frustrated by this and tends to leave them alone. The grandmother sounds like the most stable person in their lives. The girls love their father's projects, and he includes them in everything. But it is like having a child in charge. He is sloppy and dangerous, as shown in the main plot point of the story. But the narrator also explains their father's background.

Also--won't concrete burn you if it cures/dries on your skin?

[Jan · Rating 4 out of 5]

A goofy comic novel, replete with clever puns and wordplay and brilliantly translated by Emma Ramadan, about two young sisters trying to survive their childhood with a nutty father devoted to “muddernizing” their home and surroundings with the help of a concrete mixer. Not quite my thing, but I have to respect what the author and translator have accomplished. Part of the 2022 Tournament of Books.

[Katarzyna Bartoszynska · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the most impressive feats of translations I've ever read.

[Christopher · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fun book, nice as a palate cleanser. Marvelous translation. 3 1/2 stars, rounded up.

Reminds me yet again that reading in only one language is a disability.

[michal k-c · Rating 1 out of 5]

words can sound like other words occasionally — i guess language isn't set in stone (or "in concrete"). don't remember the last time i found a concept so grating in a novel

[Jessica (thebluestocking) · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was a trip. It’s a feat of translation with the wordplay. As a novel, though, it was less successful for me. There wasn’t enough plot or character development to hold my interest. But the individual scenes of the casual neglect of the child narrator were compelling.

[Kristin-Leigh · Rating 4 out of 5]

a fucked up family trauma/bad dad story with heaps of elaborate wordplay and fun parable-ish metaphors-made-literal happening on top of it. something for everyone!

[Ruthiella · Rating 2 out of 5]

Translated from the French by Emma Ramadan, this short book is full of word play. The narrator is ostensibly a 12 year old girl who tells the story of her family. Her father is a firm believer in modernization and home improvement, but he likes to take short cuts. This leads to small and large disasters involving himself, his two assisting daughters and their poor, long suffering mother. Also included are epic battles between tribes of children over the summer holidays and in the school yard. The whole thing is told with such verve and elan, it is hard not to admire it. But for all its cleverness and puns, the joke wore thin pretty fast for my tastes. Also, it is fairly gross in parts, keeping with the sensibilities of a 12 year old, perhaps.

This was My last read for the TOB 2022 shortlist.

[Carolyn · Rating 3 out of 5]

Kicking off my 2022 Rooster reading with this little weirdo. (Also annoyed that goodreads does not have the cover of the edition I read that's grey and streaky, like concrete.)

A weird little novel about a weird little family and the weird things they do. Seriously, that's what (and ALL) this is. SO BIZARRE. There's a TON of wordplay, some of which I enjoyed, but most of which. just kept me asking "What am I supposed to be getting out of this wordplay? Just "oh that's funny"? "Oh that's interesting"? Was there some other...intention?"

I didn't hate it, but I certainly didn't love it. I don't see this taking the tournament by storm...

[Jeff Bursey · Rating 3 out of 5]

Amusing and quirky. Longer review coming at some point.

Here's the longer review:

https://www.raintaxi.com/in-concrete/

[Jennifer Wallis · Rating 2 out of 5]

It wasn’t for me.

[Andy Weston · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a splendidly strange fable of a working family’s life as told through the eyes of a child.
The style Garréta’s writing is the highlight, a sort of mix of poetry, wordplay, puns and tricks with grammar. To provide the opportunity she needs for her endeavours, that she uses a 12 year old girl as narrator works perfectly.

There’s a ten page afterword from Emma Ramadan, the translator, which goes someway to explain how she managed to reproduce it in English, a feat indeed.

The father of the family receives a concrete mixer for his birthday, which changes his life. He wants to ‘muddernize’, or modernise their basic house, but has few DIY skills. Not surprisingly a series of mishaps ensue; he is temporarily blinded by falling dust and mice droppings, he and his daughters receive a shocking zap of electricity by faulty wiring. While pouring a concrete for a floor, the narrator’s younger sister, Poulette, not her real name, finishes up covered in wet concrete.
It’s compelling, and very humorous.

Garréta Is from the Oulipo literary school, or Ouvroir de littérature potentielle, Raymond Queneau was a finding member in the 1960s. In fact, a very apt summary of the book is given by Ramadan in her afterword, as Zazie In The Concrete.

We sent him back on the road to his hamlet. Cause he'd lost his way, the sad hepatic antiseptized and iodized idiot.
He kept heading down the alley to the Castle, as if intent on going for a bath in the manure pit of the former Crusaders.
We didn't take him prisoner cause we hate captivity more than anything.
If to live vanquished and without glory is to die each day, to live as a captive is to teem like a dead rat in the rank moat of time.

[Bryn Lerud · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm determined to finish The Tournament of Books if it kills me. This is one of the books for tomorrow. What a clever book!!! It is mostly form and very little substance but I'm not altogether opposed to that. It concerns a family in France who go to the country every summer where they see their grandparents and various other people. The father inherits a decrepit farmhouse and he and his 2 small daughters set about renovating it. The book is in the voice of the older daughter and is funny. It concerns a concrete mixer and clothes washer and various other tools and machines and diversions. The major action is when the concrete accidentally shoots all over the younger daughter and she is covered with quickly drying concrete. The narrator tells stories all with many, many puns and I they all make sense in English so this was a huge translation feat to get from French to English. I really enjoyed it though, like I said, not much substance.

[A · Rating 5 out of 5]

The 12 y/o narrator (gender left ambiguous for most of the book) tells the story of how her sister Poulette (alternately, Angélique) got accidentally encased in cement by their father during one of the trio’s “muddernizing” ventures at an inherited hovel. Absolutely divine, unbearably creative translation throughout by Emma Ramadan. “A bladder of time” is particularly inspired. Themes: homophobia/racism in language, anxiety, time, lingering effects of war (also in language), the loneliness and horror inherent in “modernity”. Many Qs remain, most prominently in my mind: why is the mother with their father..?!

[Care · Rating 4 out of 5]

Rating books can be SO HARD! (And thus the hilarity/absurdity of the TOB) I mentioned on Litsy that I was already hoping to read a bit from the translator about the process, and I was rewarded! The book includes the exactly that, so YAY!!!! I am wondering if I will continue to think about this book. It just might need to be a reread. If you love language and word play, if this book piques any interest, find it! Read it!

[Tim Hickman · Rating 4 out of 5]

A whirlwind adventure in word play and puns. I am amazed not that the book was translated, but that the translator could be audacious enough to consider attempting a translation. A hoot.

[Gwendolyn · Rating 2 out of 5]

I have a bit of an allergy to puns and this clever novel relies almost exclusively on puns (and often quite crude ones) for its humor. I imagine this book incredibly difficult to translate from French into English, but just because a task is difficult doesn't mean we will necessarily admire the output.

[RoxAnne Moore · Rating 2 out of 5]

The puns were enjoyable at first but got a little tiresome after awhile.