Repetition

By Alain Robbe-Grillet

Book Overview

From the French master of the avant-garde: "A spy tale whose prime puzzle lies in the philosophical intricacies of its own construction" (Entertainment Weekly).

We are in the bombed-out Berlin of 1949, after the Second World War, rendered with an atmosphere reminiscent of Orson Welles' The Third Man. Henri Robin, a special agent of the French secret service, arrives in the ruined former capital to which he feels linked by a vague but recurrent childhood memory. But the real purpose of his mission has not been revealed to him, for his superiors have decided to afford him only as much information as is indispensable for the action expected of his blind loyalty. But nothing is what it seems, and matters do not turn out as anticipated . . .

"Exhibits a sensibility as nervous and contemporary--not to mention witty--as that of any novelist working today." --The Los Angeles Times

"Mirrors, doubles, double agents, repetitions, trompe l'oeil war paintings, dream sequences, sexual torture, a criminal mafia of postwar Nazis and murky memories add to the disquieting, disorienting literary puzzle." --San Francisco Chronicle

"A Gothic masterpiece . . . Repetition is fearfest like no other, and a rewarding text that demands to be reread again and again. The master hasn't lost his touch." --The Avon Grove Sun

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: B00DEZW8NA
• ISBN13: 9780802140579
• Release Date: February 2004
• Publisher: Grove Press
• Length: 191 Pages
• Weight: 0.60 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 5.6" x 8.2"

Customer Reviews

Is This Book As Good As It Seems

Very different in style from almost anything you have read before. At times it's difficult to determine who the book is about and who the "narrator", who keeps putting in long notes, actually is (or R-G wants you to think he is). The great thing about the story is that it keeps repeating but always changing. It like an illusion, viewed through a dirty window. Each layer of dirt you remove gives you a new perspective. Read it and decide for yourself whether it is a great belle-lettre or just the musing of an old master.