Location, location?
- Book: Portrait of a Man
- Location: Paris, Switzerland
- Author: Georges Perec
This book is set mostly in Dampierre on the outskirts of Paris, but that’s irrelevant, since all the action takes place, in the first half of the novel in an underground studio and in the second half in a room….
Gaspard Winkler is a master forger who has just killed his paymaster, Madera. In the first half of the book he is trying to dig his way out of the underground studio he has been imprisoned in. While doing this, he engages in a running stream of consciousness narrative, moving seamlessly between first person, second person and third person point of view. This perhaps confusing approach illuminates the narrator’s state of mind as he berates himself for his actions and then finds himself observing the situation from a distance. It also fits neatly in with the overall theme of the book, that is the difference between fake art and real art and by extension the question of whether a life lived as a forger is in fact an authentic life at all.
The second half of the book centres on a discussion that the narrator has with an old aquaintance. This conversation further explores issues around identity and authenticity.
Interestingly, Winkler also appears briefly in Perec’s masterpiece Life: A Users Manual, where he cuts watercolour paintings into increasingly difficult jigsaw puzzles.
Portrait of a Man was the first novel Perec wrote, but he abandoned it and it wasn’t published until it was discovered by David Bellos, who produced this excellent translation.
This is a fascinating book and well worth reading, but don’t expect any insights into geographical location!
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