Readopolis, Bertrand Laverdure
Readopolis, Bertrand Laverdure
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Readopolis

Author: Bertrand Laverdure

Narrator: Simon Curwen

Unabridged: 6 hr 32 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Book*hug Press

Published: 09/15/2020


Synopsis

From award-winning writer Bertrand Laverdure comes Readopolis, a novel translated by Oana Avasilichioaei. It's 2006 and down-and-out protagonist Ghislain works as a reader for a publishing house in Montreal. He's bored with all the wannabe writers who are determined to leave a trace of their passage on earth with their feeble attempts at literary arts. Obsessed by literature and its future (or lack thereof), he reads everything he can in order to translate reality into the literary delirium that is Readopolis--a world imagined out of Chicago and Montreal, with few inhabitants, a convenience store, a parrot, and all kinds of dialogues running amok: cinematic, epistolary, theatrical, and Socratic. In the pages of Readopolis, Laverdure playfully examines the idea that human beings are more connected by their reading abilities than by anything else. Funny and sardonic, whimsical and tragic, this postmodern novel with touches of David Foster Wallace and Raymond Queneau portrays the global village of readers that the Internet created, even before the 2.0 revolution.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Jim on November 03, 2017

Québécois literature is not widely celebrated beyond the borders of this French speaking Canadian province. If asked to name even a single author I would struggle and I’m including the author of the book I’m currently reviewing as I’ve forgotten it already I’m sorry to say. The general impression I......more

Goodreads review by Jill on April 07, 2023

I am in perhaps the worst reading slump of my life. Fiction's exhausting and non-fiction is tedious, and, frankly, vice versa. Unfortunately, it's books just like this one that are keeping me there: this is intentionally up its own ass, but I'm tired of meta literature being precious -- these formal......more

Goodreads review by Amanda on November 19, 2017

an absurdly whimsical literary obscurio, this book won the GG for Translation, which gives me hope. for those who love reading, depanneurs and parrots.......more

Goodreads review by Ben on February 01, 2019

Readopolis (Lectodôme in French) is a standalone comedic contemporary written by Bertrand Laverdure and translated by Oana Avasilichioaei. This novel chronicles the daily life of Ghislain, a lowly reader for a publishing house. This book serves as an entry (A book in translation) in the Toronto Publi......more

Goodreads review by Mary Anne on November 14, 2017

This is strange book, certainly not a novel as we have become to expect. The author claims....that "literature is ultimately only the vitalization of ideas in the form of hyperrealist stories or tales." Readopolis is dada and surrealist with twists and turns of ideas and images.......more