Reading club: "Reading Georges Perec"

Numerous authors parade through Passa Porta. What if we made a date to read in detail and exchange views around their books? \n\nStarting from a book, you will be led to exchange your impressions, enrich your sensory experience through the reading of excerpts, and discuss other readings, as well as films, series, and music. An invitation to transform an individual reading into a collective experience, to broaden the spectrum and bounce off each other… The sessions take place in the early evening, in the cozy small lounge of Passa Porta. \n\nNew episode: reading Georges Perec Le. On October 7, Passa Porta will present its “Prix Noble” to Georges Perec. The opportunity to honor the work of this virtuoso French writer who passed away in 1982. Have you read La Vie: A User's Manual, Species of Spaces, An Attempt at Exhausting a Place in Paris, were you left speechless by the feat of La Disparition, were you moved by W, or the Memory of Childhood? Come share your vision of Perec'quier work, and live a privileged collective moment around this playful and stimulating work, which still gathers a large circle of fans today. \n\nFor this slightly special book club, bring your favorite book by Georges Perec, and come exchange your impressions or propose to read an excerpt from it. \n\nThis club will also be an ideal introduction for the evening of October 7. \n\nAbout the author \nGeorges Perec was born in Paris on March 7, 1936. His parents were emigrants of Polish-Jewish origin. He became an orphan very early: his father was killed at the front in June 1940; his mother did not return from Auschwitz, where she was deported in 1943. He was adopted by his uncle and aunt, and grew up in Paris. After his military service and a stay of more than a year in Tunisia, he began writing short notes for the French Nouvelle Revue and Les Lettres Nouvelles while working as a documentalist in a medical research laboratory. In 1965, Les Choses was published, which met with lively success and won the Prix Renaudot. Two years later, Georges Perec was co-opted by Raymond Queneau and François le Lionnais into the Oulipo (Ouvroir de littérature potentielle). He would become one of the most prolific figures of the movement. Perec never ceased to write with a remarkable diversity of inspiration, and in all literary genres, from poetry to autobiographical writing, from the essay to poetry. Among his titles: A Man Asleep, I Remember, La Disparition (a lipogrammatic novel written without the letter e), Les Revenentes (where the only vowel used is e), La Vie: A User's Manual (which received the Médicis prize in 1978), A Cabinet of Amateur, and “53 Days” (left unfinished). In 1974, he adapted for cinema and directed with B. Queysanne Un A Man Asleep (Jean Vigo prize). He would split his life between Paris and Normandy (the Moulin d'Andé). Starting in 1976, he wrote the "Crosswords" for the weekly Le Point. Georges Perec died on March 3, 1982, at Charles-Foix Hospital in Ivry-sur-Seine from complications of lung cancer. A few months earlier, not yet knowing he was ill, he had listed "the things one must nevertheless not forget to do before dying". Two unpublished works by Perec are announced for the September rentrée by Éditions du Seuil: Dialogue with Painters and Drawings, Inks and Gouaches. \n\nAbout the moderator \nOxyne Vercammen spends a lot of time distilling books, notably at the library where she works. Since 2024, she has hosted "Ricocher", a literary encounter format that aims to give a voice to the actors of the book world.