Things: A Story of the Sixties & A Man Asleep by Georges Perec

With the American publication of Life: A User’s Manual in 1987, Georges Perec was immediately recognized in the U.S. as one of this century’s most innovative writers. Now, Godine is pleased to issue two of his most powerful novels in one volume: Things, in an authoritative new translation, and A Man Asleep, making its first English appearance. Both provoked strong reactions when they first appeared in the 1960s; both which speak with disquieting immediacy to the conscience of today’s readers. In each tale, Perec subtly probes our obsession with society’s trappings—the seductive mass of things that crams our lives, masquerading as stability and meaning.Jerome and Sylvie, the young, upwardly mobile couple in Things, lust for the good life. “They wanted life’s enjoyment, but all around them enjoyment was equated with ownership.” Surrounded by Paris’s tantalizing exclusive boutiques, they exist in a paralyzing vacuum of frustration, caught between the fantasy of “the film they would have l