Most helpful customer reviews
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1.0 out of 5 stars
Like a fancy ride around the block., Dec 16 2002
Jean Echenoz's "I'm Gone" is about a French art dealer who leaves his wife and engages in some international shennanigans, resulting in confusion and excitement, almost like a James Bond story for the average guy. The writing is polished, and the vocabulary good (actually, not so much "good" as overdone, like the author had just bought a thesaurus and was giving it a test-drive). The protagonist and plot both seemed interesting as the book went along, but ultimately both were pointless and superficial.It was like riding in a fancy limousine, smiling happily and having a sip of champagne, but then being asked brusquely to step out, and finding you did nothing but go quickly around the block. The book left this reviewer with no afterthoughts whatsoever. It's actually quite forgettable. Unfortunately, I don't even remember having enjoyed it while reading it, I remember being relatively confused by the plot's believability and pointlessness, otherwise I might have recommended it as a good "beach time" read.
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4.0 out of 5 stars
A mixed bag, sure to provoke love-it-or-hate-it controversy., Aug 17 2001
This short novel is a potpourri of genres--it's a mystery, a social commentary on life in Paris (with the requisite French digs at other countries, including the U.S.), a travel/adventure story, a meditation about love and lust, and a study of midlife crisis. Its main character, Felix Ferrer, a marginally successful gallery owner whose main preoccupation is his own ego, is interested in locating and then selling paleoarctic artifacts from a ship lost near the Arctic Circle long ago, when it became icebound. When the artifacts, his former partner, his wife, a succession of girlfriends, and his financial security all disappear within a short period of time, Felix rouses himself and sets out to regain the artifacts, and, perhaps, some control over his life.Echenoz is an immensely skillful writer. He creates a fast-paced narrative in which Ferrer ranges from his Parisian art gallery, to the Arctic, where he lives with a seal-hunting family (nice contrasts here), and back to Paris and Spain, and Echenoz makes these transitions seamlessly. His imagery is often striking, and there's a good deal of sardonic humor and light satire about Parisian life. His ability to make the reader see the world through the eyes of Ferrer, and his observations about people, are sometimes startling and original. Unfortunately, the "hero," Ferrer, is so blasé and so obnoxiously self-satisfied that it's difficult to care much about his world or what happens to him, and the whole novel feels smug. The unnamed narrator's snide and self-important asides degenerate rapidly from cute to annoying ("Personally, I've had it up to here with [a certain character]. His daily life is too boring."). The characters' casual cruelty toward everyone in a subordinate position, their universal lack of "engagement," and their treatment of women as objects further distance the reader and reflect the feeling that becoming involved or caring intensely about anything at all is somehow unsophisticated or bourgeois. Although the author is hugely talented and his book did win the Prix Goncourt, it lacks the vitality and sense of commitment I've come to associate with this prize. And if it's satire, it somehow rings too true.
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5.0 out of 5 stars
I am a biblioholic and this hit the spot. Period., Jul 28 2001
I love to read (trite, right?). I got wind of this book throught the Times Literary Supplement in which they said that M. Polizzotti got an award for translating a Prix Gouncourt awarded novel called "I'm Gone" by Jean Echenoz. So I ordered it....and read it within one sitting and it reinforced my behavior of seeking out "that one book"...the book that makes you read past your bedtime...because of the plot. But also because of the writing and the way the novelist arranged the piece of fiction. Luckily you do not have to take my word on this...just read the reviews from France and look at this author's stellar history (every book he writes seems to get an award). It frustrates me that I in the USA am often not privy to brilliant fiction writers throughout the world merely because their works are not tranlated into English. I thank Mr. Polizzotti for translating this work. What a wonderful read.....one reviewer ahead of me (on amazon.com) said he knew what what was coming before it was read. I pride myself in being somewhat intelligent (Univ of Chicago Professor) and did not see the major "punchline" coming. So maybe the other reviewer knows more than me but I wanted to say from my perspective, this was one of the best works of modern-day fiction I have read ever.
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