The Orchard: A Remembrance of Georges Perec

by Harry Mathews

Den Stil von dessen Buch Je me souviens wählend erinnert sich Harry Mathews an seinen verstorbenen Freund Georges Perec und zeichnet ein zärtliches Bild gemeinsam erlebter Tage und Stunden. Die von großer Intimität getragene Trauer­arbeit macht den Text zu einem literarischen Juwel, das nahe Einblicke in die Person des großen Autors und Freundes gewährt.

Genres: Biography Memoir, Nonfiction

31 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1986

About the author

Harry Mathews was an American author of various novels, volumes of poetry and short fiction, and essays.

Together with John Ashbery, James Schuyler, and Kenneth Koch, Mathews founded and edited the short-lived but influential literary journal Locus Solus (named after a novel by Raymond Roussel, one of Mathews's chief early influences) from 1961 to 1962.

Harry Mathews was the first American chosen for membership in the French literary society known as the Oulipo, which is dedicated to exploring new possibilities in literature, in particular through the use of various constraints and algorithms. The late French writer Georges Perec, likewise a member, was a good friend, and the two translated some of each other's writings. Mathews considers many of his works to be Oulipian in nature, but even before he encountered the society he was working in a parallel direction.

Mathews was married to the writer Marie Chaix and divided his time between Paris, Key West, and New York.

Reviews

[Cody · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very sweet, very slight. No histrionics, just the marginalia Harry jotted down when Perec died. His was a Giza of love.

[Mai K. · Rating 5 out of 5]

loved every word (there aren't that many)

[Ben Loory · Rating 3 out of 5]

a very slight book of recollections which form a portrait of a writers' friendship. some of them are very simple, for instance: "I remember that when he was alone George Perec skipped lunch." some of them are more complicated: "I remember waking up eleven days after George Perec died and realizing that I was turning the remembrance of his death into the conviction that every day is ruined before it begins-- a convenient "waking anguish" I had given up seven years before." i was never really able to get into perec (or mathews), but this book made me want to try again. especially this part:

I remember experiencing great happiness on the day in June, 1975, when I realized I loved George Perec without reservation.