JMG Le Clézio

Has anyone read any work by this year's Nobel winner: JMG Le Clézio? Only a few of his books have been translated? Sarajill, do you know anything? Will he perhaps be an NYRB pick?

All of Le Clezio's earlier works that were translated were put out by Atheneum (in America) in small print runs. I happen to be a fan and have every one of them. Simon and Schuster apparently is planning on reissuing his first novel the Interrogation.

http://www.rochester.edu/College/translation/threepercent/index.php?id=1388

He's had a number of translations beyond the early (60's and 70's) Atheneum books. The earlier works tend more to experimentation. Later works tend to be plotted a lot more.

I just recently finished The Prospector published by David R. Godine and translated by Carol Marks. I thought it was brilliant and one of the best books I've read in years. I picked up a couple of other Le Clezio books and am currently reading Onitsha, which I'm also enjoying.

>2 lriley:, >3 abealy: Thanks Iriley and abealy. I have put in an order for a few.

I know we'd looked into some of his books in the past, and that the series editor is not all that impressed. But it does seem like there's a fair amount of his writing that will soon be available if it isn't already.

sarajill,

Just out of curiousity, what are the characteristics that ring the series editor's bell? I ask because I find NYRB interesting (obviously) but uneven in places. I don't have room to talk of course. I shudder to think what someone might say about my library if she/he were viewing it as a series.

Some of his earlier works can be difficult reads. There's a connection to some of the Nouveau Roman writers such as Robbe-Grillet, Butor, Sarraute. Character and plot are played down. His short story collections from back then though (at least IMO) are more conventional to the norm. At least starting with his english translated work--The Prospector is a real change towards storyline and plot. That's the direction he seems to be on since. That novel is set in Mauritius and is very evocative of the tropical nature of the island. There is a bit of an anarchist in Le Clezio. He has very little sympathy for power structures--political or corporate. It informs in smaller and larger ways most of his work. He is also a global writer in the sense--fascinated with indigenous peoples particularly Africans, South Americans.

Last month I read Onitsha, which was excellent, and The Round and Other Cold Hard Facts, a collection of short stories, which were bleak but powerful. I hope to get to Wandering Star and The Prospector soon.