Tentative D'épuisement D'un Lieu Parisien
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''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 Georges Perec (; 7 March 1936 – 3 March 1982) was a French novelist, filmmaker, documentalist, and essayist. He was a member of the Oulipo group. His father died as a soldier early in the Second World War and his mother was killed in the Ho ...
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 city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...
. 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 construction, constructi ...
, 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 HTMLGIANT is an online literature blog founded by American author Blake Butler. It presents itself as a "literature blog that isn't always about literature", and includes book reviews and interviews. It is considered to be an important outlet for ...
''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."


Legacy

The 2018 novel '' Écoute'' by Boris Razon is a fictional version of ''An Attempt at Exhausting a Place in Paris''. - Abstract is in English.


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