Michel Tournier [Hardcover]

This intriguing book provides a up-to-date introduction to the works of Michel Tournier, arguably the most internationally influential French novelist of the last 25 years. His novels have been widely translated and have often provoked controversy and incurred charges of perversion. This study examines the nature of the attack which Tournier mounts on many of the norms and assumptions of Western culture and his often startling reinterpretation of the mythologies which have nourished and sustained it. His critical review of contemporary culture places him in a radical tradition of French writers and aligns him with contemporaries such as Barthes, Foucault and some aspects of post-modernist thinking. This is the first study to provide a full picture of Tournier not just as a novelist but also as a prophet and dissenter who brings creative disruption to bear on what he views as deeply rooted repressive structures of thinking and feeling.

As the chapters of Gascoignes' study unfold, the reader experiences a deepening and more comprehensive understanding of each of Tournier's novels and of the corpus as a whole. It goes well beyond being a mere compilation of other critics' insights. While Gascoigne shows himself to be particualrly skilled in analytic synthesis, he infuses throughout this work his own original interpretations of Tournier's novels and short stories. AUMLA

intelligently sensitive strategy French Studies

comprehensive and extremely readable study [...] This introduction to the works of Michel Tournier is clear enough to be very valuable to the novice, but also contains many insights which will inform and challenge the expert. Forum for Modern Language Studies

David Gascoigne offers us a very useful and rewarding introduction to the work of Michel Tournier, comprehensively researched, well organised, and written in clear, focused prose. World Literature Today

David Gascoigne Senior Lecturer ilÃs