The Planetarium

I see huge similarities and would love to know what effect Woolfe had on Sarraute: But dry? Not on your life. Look at the thoughts of the aunt as she sits down to write: she takes on the whole world with each word. The young man at the party may be pompous, but his desire to lead his listeners "into the forest" with him, is touching: have you never tried to explain something that meant everything to you only to hear "pass the chardonnay please". The doorway described at the beginning of this book is a doorway to the psychologies of the characters, not the words they speak, but the .00001 second of motivation that CAUSES them to say what they do...and if you examine any character in this light they, we, will be dramatic. So I did find this book conducive to entertainment, just in a completely different way....

Nathalie Sarraute isn't quite as eccentric and daring as I'd been led to believe before I got around to reading her. In fact her subject matter is decidedly traditional - it's just her approach that's so unusual. She discusses ordinary scenarios of human life - here, the life of a young man, his wife and his aunt - in terms of pure psychology, not of narrative. The effect is that dialogue blends with stream-of-consciousness in a compelling flow. There's little traditional characterization; rather, Sarraute illustrates her characters solely through what they say and think. I don't know whether she intended literary revolution in works such as this, but it's inarguable that she does something fascinating and new here. Highly recommended.