Monsieur

The hero of this cool novel is ’Monsieur’, a nameless young man whose everyday life is followed in precise detail during the course of the narrative. Almost incidentally we discover that Monsieur has an executive job and a secretary; that he is rejected by his fiancée but is championed by her parents; that he unwillingly types out his neighbour’s scientific treatise and attends parties with (self-) important people; and that he has a brother and twin nieces aged six to whom he tries to explain the great verities of life while babysitting. Monsieur is solitary and observant: he muses on everything from his Rotring pen to the arrangement of the stars in the night sky over Paris. His universe is described with a combination of blandness and wit that turns the ordinary into wondrous oddity.

Jean-Philippe Toussaint is the author of nine novels, and the winner of numerous literary prizes, including the Prix Decembre for The Truth about Marie. His writing has been compared to the works of Samuel Beckett, Jacques Tati, the films of Jim Jarmusch, and even Charlie Chaplin.

John Lambert is a Canadian literary translator. His translations of Toussaint’s works include Monsieur, The Bathroom, and Self-Portrait Abroad.