Les Ruines de Paris

by Jacques Reda

First published in 1977.

Genres: Poetry, Literature, French Literature, France

192 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published January 1, 1977

Reviews

[sadeleuze · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Ruins of Paris is a book of poems, most of them written in prose. It's an urban wandering through landscapes at the rhythm of walking, in a lyrical and meditative reflection.

I really liked "arrêts, buffets, liaisons routières".

[Moro · Rating 1 out of 5]

Il m’a soûlé. Je ne l’ai pas fini. Je ne comprends pas où il veut en venir l’auteur.

[TinHouseBooks · Rating 5 out of 5]

Heather Hartley (Paris Editor): Jacques Réda’s The Ruins of Paris guides the reader through the city’s neighborhoods and suburbs–from beautiful to gritty, noble to popular, spirited to silent. A true flâneur (stroller or walker or loafer), Réda moves from Montmartre to Belleville to St. Germain des Prés to everywhere in between. His love of jazz music is evident in his syncopated, lyrical and at times disjointed prose. “A courtyard, no, an impasse that is illuminated by a solitary tree–I stop. But it’s not out of curiosity that I keep walking past the dark wood . . .”

[Don Socha · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this in a hurry and now hope to read it again more slowly. The author's sharp focus on surface details might remind us of Robbe-Grillet. But it is more about relations one might experience with one's environment. In this way one might describe it as phenomenological field notes.

[Xo · Rating 3 out of 5]

One of the most descriptive, lovely documents of any city, narrated by a man who is unafraid to admit to his values, powerful yet reserved in their essence.