Goodbye Claude Simon. We hardly knew ye. Meaning, hardly any of us was ever able to finish one of your books.
Claude Simon was one of the new novelists, which means he was pretty difficult to read, especially if you expect a book with a linear path. I got as far as reading a couple of Alain Robbe-Grillet's books before I realized I rather enjoyed knowing what was going on in the books I read. I did pick up one of his novels but I was never able to finish it. My friend, Claudius, did knock out at least one Simon and I think he enjoyed it.
This from The Telegraph:
"Claude Simon, the French novelist who has died aged 91, was one of the foremost exponents of le nouveau roman, the "new novel" style of the 1950s and 1960s which rejected the literary conventions of plot, narration and character development.Posted by Paul Hina at July 12, 2005 10:38 AM
"Although his books - which contained little punctuation, jumbled chronology and meandering description - did not command a wide readership, Simon was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1985, after the publication of Les Georgiques (The Georgics), about three men's experience of war."