Jean Echenoz

[Stewart]

Jean Echenoz (born December 26, 1947 in Orange, France) is a French writer.

Echenoz studied in Rodez, Digne-les-Bains, Lyon, Aix-en-Provence, Marseille and Paris, where he lives since 1970. He published his first book, Le méridien de Greenwich in 1979. He has published twelve novels to date and received about ten literary prizes, including the prix Médicis 1983 for Cherokee, the prix Goncourt 1999 for Je m'en vais, and the prix Aristeion for Lac.


BIBLIOGRAPHY

• Le méridien de Greenwich (1979)
• Cherokee (1983)
• L'équipée malaise (1986) [Eng: Double Jeopardy]
• L'occupation des sols (1988)
• Lac (1989) [Eng: Chopin's Move]
• Nous trois (1992)
• Les grandes blondes (1995) [Eng: Big Blondes]
• Un an (1997)
• Je m'en vais (1999) [Eng: I'm Gone]
• Jérôme Lindon (2001)
• Au piano (2003) [Eng: Piano]
• Ravel (2006)

[Stewart]

This one is inspired by something read in JPS' introduction:

Writers I like in French are René Belletto (a friend), Jean-Patrick Manchette, Jean Echenoz, et al

Having bought Echenoz's Piano, purely based on the cover, I'm just canvassing thoughts on him and his works.

[JPS]

I've read all of Echenoz's novels, and like him very much, though after the first few you sense a certain set of mannerisms than become repetitive. There's also a distance, a froideur, to his approach that can drain the suspense of the story-telling of any real emotion. I read him whenever he has a new book out, but not as eagerly as, say, Belletto or even Modiano, who really is a different kind of author.

Belletto, at his best (in the Lyon trilogy, for instance) owns the narrative; you sense that his heart's in the story and that he wants to see it through, and so you're never aware of the narrative tricks and ploys that Echenoz all too easily falls back on. Which isn't to say that Echenoz isn't fun to read, and often glorious to read when he's at his baroque best.

Manchette, for me, is the best and most brilliant of the practitioners of the roman noir. I'm currently reading a volume of his journals, which gives some insight into what formed him as a writer, and how his political passions, as well as his love for American cinema and jazz, went into his fiction.