Reviews for La Maison de Rendez-Vous and Djinn

The average rating for La Maison de Rendez-Vous and Djinn based on 2 reviews is 4 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2007-06-22 00:00:00 Jeffrey Tobish La Maison de Rendez-Vous is a lava lamp of a narrative, a mutating blob that repeats and repeats and repeats, the details always slightly different, with parts breaking off and then folding back in. Repetition is typical in the world of Robbe-Grillet, but it's more intense here, and the story more impossible. A (way oversimplified) summary: A man needs to flee Hong Kong because the police are after him for the murder of a rich man, but the murdering man wants to take his favorite prostitute with him when he goes -- but she demands an incredibly high sum of money, so he visits the rich man to try to get the money, murders him when he doesn't give it to him, and comes back to the girl to find the cops waiting for him. I want to say it's a tightly constructed examination of the fallibility of memory and the process of telling stories, but part of me suspects that Robbe-Grillet was just having a blast messing with the reader. There hasn't been much written about La Maison de Rendevous (at least that I can find online) and even though I didn't love it, I feel like it deserves more attention. I'd benefit from a good critical essay on this. Djinn is a bit like a music video from the early '80s -- a short, angular, stylish take on a spy story. There's a pleasant otherworldliness about it that makes it easier to swallow than its partner in this volume. It doesn't punch you in the face like La Maison, but rather warms you up for what La Maison is going to throw at you. That said, I think I'd like both of these more if they weren't now associated with each other in my head.

Review # 2 was written on 2019-07-10 00:00:00 Henry Rosenfeld Two terrific short works by the master of what they called the New Novel in France in the 60s. These books have plots like elaborate knots, and with all the scenes recurring and blending together, the reader has to be alert to keep track of what's going on. I found both these word-puzzles exciting as well as challenging. I preferred La Maison de Rendez-Vous, an exotic story of underworld intrigue in the Far East, but Djinn had humor and mystery too. The only problem is that, as much fun as the ride is, I don't feel like I got anywhere.