Zazie in the Metro

This book was being studied in one of my university courses. I had read it as a child, but had absolutely no memory of it. I'm glad I rediscovered it with a few more tools to appreciate it: I can now recommend it.

What is it?

Zazie in the Metro is a novel written by Raymond Queneau in 1959. This author is known among others for his Exercices in Style, a fascinating little book in which the same story is told in 99 different ways, but he is also the co-founder of the Oulipo, a literary movement that is mostly experimental and intellectual and that gave birth to such curiosities as a book made of paper strips that can be arranged in any way to create billions of different poems (A thousand billion poems) and a book in which the letter e is completely absent (A Void). Little candies for the brain... when you are ready for them. For my part, I tried to read A Void a few years ago, but I couldn't finish it. It was physical: I felt that something was missing, and I couldn't stand it.

Zazie in the Metro was published one year before the foundation of the Oulipo. It is therefore not part of the Oulipo, but one can recognize very well the mark of its author. Absurd, brilliant and hilarious, it is the story of a little girl who dreams of going in the subway, and who will not go. No need to look for the story much further, that's not the important thing.

Impressions

Honestly, books are rarely made this funny. I laughed the whole time, especially in the first few pages, because I was constantly surprised. The dialogue and all the language games are delightful, and as a linguist, I was enjoying it.

No way, they never clean themselves. In the newspaper, they say that not eleven percent of the apartments in Paris have bathrooms, that doesn't surprise me, but you can wash without one. [...]

Gabriel pulled a mauve-colored silk pouch from his sleeve and dabbed it on his forehead.

- What stinks like that? said a woman loudly.

She was not thinking of herself when she said that, she was not selfish, she wanted to talk about the perfume that emanated from this meussieu.

- That, miss, answered Gabriel who had speed in the repartee, it is Barbouze, a perfume of Fior.

- It shouldn't be allowed to stink up the world like that, continued the confident woman.

- If I understand correctly, miss, you think that your natural perfume is a match for that of roses. Well, you are wrong, miss, you are wrong.

- Do you hear that? said the woman to a little guy next to her, probably the one who had the right to ride her legally. Do you hear how he disrespects me, this fat pig?

– Raymond Queneau, Zazie in the Metro

We get seriously infatuated with this style. The whole book goes very fast and we have a lot of fun, but we have to be careful, because if we go too fast, we miss important things, and the end is already incomprehensible enough.

I recommend it. Yes, it's kind of a classic, but mostly it's so funny and entertaining. Kids will have fun too. It's a win-win situation.