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Niagara: A Stereophonic Novel
In common with a few fellow Frenchmen such as Robbe-Grillet and Simon, Michel Butor is known for his experiments with the novel. Niagara is no exception. It is a "new novel" -- unashamedly.
The novel is set at Niagara Falls, and the action takes place during twenty-four hours -- or a year, depending on your time scale -- and deals with the various people who visit the tourist spot: honeymooners, the couple trying to recapture their honeymoon days, the Negro gardeners, the seducer, the frustrated, the lonely. Using a technique that owes much to the theater and even more to radio and sterephonic sound, Butor has achieved an unexpected synthesis of message and medium. Everyman is there, the whole human condition, and through the careful juxtaposition and blend of dialogue, commentary, and mood (provided by an 18th-century visitor, Viscount Francois-Rene de Chateaubriand), Butor encapsulates the quality of life: its inhumanity, its warmth; its selfishness, its kindliness; its arrogance, its humility.
The novel is set at Niagara Falls, and the action takes place during twenty-four hours -- or a year, depending on your time scale -- and deals with the various people who visit the tourist spot: honeymooners, the couple trying to recapture their honeymoon days, the Negro gardeners, the seducer, the frustrated, the lonely. Using a technique that owes much to the theater and even more to radio and sterephonic sound, Butor has achieved an unexpected synthesis of message and medium. Everyman is there, the whole human condition, and through the careful juxtaposition and blend of dialogue, commentary, and mood (provided by an 18th-century visitor, Viscount Francois-Rene de Chateaubriand), Butor encapsulates the quality of life: its inhumanity, its warmth; its selfishness, its kindliness; its arrogance, its humility.
267 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1965
98 people want to read
About the author
Michel Butor
311 books74 followersMichel Marie François Butor was born in Mons-en-Barœul, a suburb of Lille. He studied philosophy at the Sorbonne, graduating in 1947. He has taught in Egypt, Manchester, Thessaloniki, the United States, and Geneva. He has won many literary awards for his work, including the Prix Apollo, the Prix Fénéon; and the Prix Renaudot.
Journalists and critics have associated his novels with the nouveau roman, but Butor himself long resisted that association. The main point of similarity is a very general one, not much beyond that; like exponents of the nouveau roman, he can be described as an experimental writer. His best-known novel, La Modification, for instance, is written entirely in the second person. In his 1967 La critique et l'invention, he famously said that even the most literal quotation is already a kind of parody because of its "trans-contextualization."
For decades, he chose to work in other forms, from essays to poetry to artist's books to unclassifiable works like Mobile. Literature, painting and travel are subjects particularly dear to Butor. Part of the fascination of his writing is the way it combines the rigorous symmetries that led Roland Barthes to praise him as an epitome of structuralism (exemplified, for instance, by the architectural scheme of Passage de Milan or the calendrical structure of L'emploi du temps) with a lyrical sensibility more akin to Baudelaire than to Robbe-Grillet.
Journalists and critics have associated his novels with the nouveau roman, but Butor himself long resisted that association. The main point of similarity is a very general one, not much beyond that; like exponents of the nouveau roman, he can be described as an experimental writer. His best-known novel, La Modification, for instance, is written entirely in the second person. In his 1967 La critique et l'invention, he famously said that even the most literal quotation is already a kind of parody because of its "trans-contextualization."
For decades, he chose to work in other forms, from essays to poetry to artist's books to unclassifiable works like Mobile. Literature, painting and travel are subjects particularly dear to Butor. Part of the fascination of his writing is the way it combines the rigorous symmetries that led Roland Barthes to praise him as an epitome of structuralism (exemplified, for instance, by the architectural scheme of Passage de Milan or the calendrical structure of L'emploi du temps) with a lyrical sensibility more akin to Baudelaire than to Robbe-Grillet.
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
April 26, 2024
I'd encourage trying to read it in the original French, with the aid of the translation if your French is shaky (both versions are on archive.org). There's not a lot of text and the French is very poetic and flows beautifully, with lovely alliteration and assonance. Unfortunately, Miller's translation is often odd and awkward, with some outright translation errors at times (those "badgers"...).
August 17, 2016
Un tour de force d'écriture en contrepoint (comme L'emploi du temps d'ailleurs, mais dans un autre registre).
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews