''An Attempt at Exhausting a Place in Paris'', (French: ''Tentative d'épuisement d'un lieu parisien'') is a short (roughly 60 pages) book by Georges Perec written in October 1974 and published in 1975. It is a collection of observations which Perec wrote as he sat in Saint-Sulpice Square in

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...

. Rather than describing impressive or notable things such as the

architecture Architecture is the art and technique of designing and building, as distinguished from the skills associated with construction. It is both the process and the product of sketching, conceiving, planning, designing, and constructing building ...

, Perec aims to describe all the things that usually pass unnoticed. He charts brief details of buses and people who pass, not worrying about repetition. ''An Attempt at Exhausting a Place in Paris'' was first published in the French journal ''Cause Commune'' in 1975 and as a small book in 1982 (Marc Lowenthal’s English translation was released in 2010).

Reception

'' HTMLGIANT''s Lily Hoang reviewed it favorably stating "Georges Perec is charming, the most charming man I will never meet, and ''An Attempt'' is yet another charming example of his charm."

References

External links

Bibliography of secondary writings on ''Tentative ''
{{DEFAULTSORT:Attempt at Exhausting a Place in Paris, An Works by Georges Perec 1975 non-fiction books French books Books about Paris Oulipian works