Staff Pick
The Sextine Chapel is a curious little book comprised of interconnected tales relating the sexual exploits of 26 characters. Written by Hervé Le Tellier, an acclaimed French author, this book is the first of his to be translated into English. Le Tellier is a member of Oulipo, the mostly French literary group dedicated to "potential literature." Founded in 1960, Oulipo has included as its members Raymond Queneau (its co-founder), Italo Calvino, and Georges Perec. Constrained by self-imposed patterns or formulas (often of mathematical origin), Oulipo writers craft their works around these unique literary concepts. While the results do not always make for the most fascinating stories, they are most certainly tantalizingly and refreshingly original. So it is with The Sextine Chapel.
Each page recounts a sexual encounter between two characters (first, Anna and Ben, second, Ben and Chloe, third, Chloe and Dennis, etc., through the entire alphabet and then in a seemingly more random order). Each of these explicitly conveyed, third-person encounters is only a paragraph long, but is followed by an italicized sentence or two recalling a personal anecdote or thought brought on during or immediately following these amorous entanglements. With a total of 78 sexual couplings (each of the 26 characters participates in 6 meetings, 6 x 26 = 156, 156 / 2 = 78), a most stunning pattern is created therefrom. To reveal Le Tellier's objective and its intriguing result would be poor sportsmanship, so, if inclined, you'll have to go and find out for yourself.
While I found much of the writing clinical and decidedly untitillating (though not without character or impulse), those readers with puritanical leanings will surely be left aghast, grossly offended, and would be well served to forego this work altogether. As a lover of mathematics, formulas, puzzles, ingenuity, and the like, The Sextine Chapel grew on me immeasurably after an initial reading. Much of the content did nothing to move me, but the form is utterly remarkable. This is one of the more curious, entirely unexpected works I've read in some time. Le Tellier has created something unique and memorable with this slim book, and it will, if nothing else, briefly transport you away from the trite, vapid stylings of what often passes for modern literature today. Recommended By Jeremy G., Powells.com
Synopses & Reviews
The delightful and daring English-language debut of French author Herve´ le Tellier is a series of short, intimately interconnected stories making up a lively user's manual to pleasure, relating the various liaisons of couples from Anna and Ben to Yolande and Zach (taking in Chloe and Xavier along the way, as well as twenty others, as you may have guessed), until the criss-crossing of their lives and partners makes up a pattern as intricate as the fresco on the ceiling of a chapel . . . Harkening back to another playful book on an intimate subject--Harry Mathews's --Herve´ le Tellier's celebrates the wonderful, often random, often excruciating possibilities of sexual intimacy, with something here for just about everyone--and their wife, husband, lover, or passing fancy.
Review
"Herve´ Le Tellier's book, both imaginative and rigorous, full of sex and humor, based on variations upon a chosen theme, on references to Bataille and Martial--in a word, a new --deserves our immediate attention." Parutions.com
Synopsis
Joyful, intimate, ironic, and banal'"a literary celebration of sex.
Synopsis
An interconnected series of playful stories on the expected and unexpected pleasures of sexual intimacy.
About the Author
Hervé Le Tellier has been a member of the Oulipo since 1992. His books include a collection of unusual poetry, Les Opossums celebres (The Famous Opossums), novels: Je m'attache très facilement (I Easily Become Attached to People), which was awarded the Prix du Roman d'amour, Assez parle d'amour (Enough Said About Love) and the stories The Sextine Chapel.Ian Monk became a member of the Oulipo in 1988. His books include Family Archaeology and Writings for the Oulipo.