The Thumbnail Book Reviews
by John Q McDonald --- 24 July 1998
by Alain Robbe-Grillet
In a half dozen very short stories, Robbe-Grillet creates accutely visual impressions of times and places. A major figure of the nouveau roman (a literary movement that reached it's apex when Claude Simon won the 1985 Nobel Prize), the author's little stories demonstrate with virtuoso brevity, some of the stylistic invention of that movement. Scenes are described in detail, time is non-linear, and an emotional aspect of visual elements is strongly evoked. The scenes range from boys stuck on an island by the high tide, to crowds of people in the Paris Métro, to a bloody vignette in a cavernous room. However, they are a little too brief, leaving the reader with little time to contemplate the intricacies of the almost non-narrative tales. These are, indeed, snapshots, but the longer works of Robbe-Grillet are more satisfying as the reader can become more deeply immersed in the ambience of his writing style.