Why I Have Not Written Any of My Books

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Why I Have Not Written Any of My Books

Marcel Bénabou
Translated by David Kornacker
Preface by Warren Motte

French Modernist Library Series

111 pages

Paperback

March 1998

978-0-8032-6139-6

$13.95 Add to Cart
"A mercurially playful paradox of confessional literature, authorial awakening, and creative endeavor."—Kirkus Reviews

About the Book

Marcel Bénabou is quick to acknowledge that his own difficulty in writing has plenty of company. Words stick and syntax is stubborn, meaning slips and synonyms cluster. A blank page taunts and a full one accuses. Bénabou knows the heroic joy of depriving critics of victims, the kindness of sparing publishers decisions, and the public charity of leaving more room in bookstore displays. Why I Have Not Written Any of My Books (Pourquoi je n’ai écrit aucun de mes livres) provides both a respectful litany of writers’ fears and a dismissal of the alibis offered to excuse them.

Author Bio

The author (or not) of a dozen books, Marcel Bénabou is a professor of ancient history at the University of Paris VII and permanent provisional secretary of Oulipo. David Kornacker is a writer and translator living in New York City. Warren Motte is a professor of French at the University of Colorado.

Praise

"A mercurially playful paradox of confessional literature, authorial awakening, and creative endeavor."—Kirkus Reviews

Awards

1996 Best Books, sponsored by Publishers Weekly, selection

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