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Things: A Story of the Sixties with A Man Asleep
Things: A Story of the Sixties with A Man Asleep
Dec 4, 2025 11:39 AM

Author:Georges Perec,David Bellos

Things: A Story of the Sixties with A Man Asleep

Things: A Story of the Sixties is the story of a young couple who want to enjoy life, but the only way they know how to do so is through ownership of 'things'. Perec's first novel won the Prix Renaudot and became the cult book for a generation.

In A Man Asleep, a young student embarks upon a disturbing and exhaustive pursuit of indifference, following his experience in non-existence with relentless logic.

Reviews

Required reading for anyone interested in the evolution of this modern master

—— Andrew Motion , Observer

As a witty attack on consumerism Things is as much a parable of the Nineties as it is a story of the Sixties

—— Sunday Times

Perec's first novel is a masterpiece of elegaic mockery

—— Financial Times

Things, Perec's first novel, is an innovative, perceptive and even moving study of corrosive consumerism

—— Independent

[A Man Asleep is] grimly obsessing...one turns the pages with unlikely fascination

—— Euan Cameron , Sunday Telegraph

[A Man Asleep] Bleak, benighted, uncompromisingly unhappy, this is not the book to read if you already have difficulty in finding reasons for getting out of bed

—— Guardian

A Man Asleep is true to its subject and also readable...a remarkable achievement

—— Independent

Perec's fiction is a delight to all who care for real literature

—— Guardian

Two striking, clumsy, romantic studies in extremism

—— Independent

Brilliantly detailed and textured

—— Daily Mail

Tremain is the finest of historical fiction writers

—— Gloss

It's uncommonly well written, with a bountiful supply of manic energy... Would Paul Auster kill to write a book as playful, fast-paced and unashamedly populist as this? Doubtful, but somewhere there's a "Paul Auster" who might

—— Alastair Mabbott , Herald

Sparky debut

—— Jonathan Barnes , Literary Review

Benedictus takes us on a trail of the contentious highs and lows of the rich and famous in a mixture of dark humour and sharp dialogue. For Benedictus, and his valiant debut novel, more of the same please

—— Ben Bookless , Big Issue

The story of the ultimate celeb after-party, it's a knowing wink at publishing and celebrity culture - a high-concept first novel sitting just the right side of salacious

—— Elle

The Afterparty avoids smugness partly because it has more affection that vitriol for the culture that it mocks... It's very funny, but sad, too... Well-drawn characters, smart dialogue and a canny plot

—— Anthony Cummins , The Times
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