W, or the Memory of Childhood is kind of a confusing book that is open for many interpretations. The fact that it was a story written with different narratives and storylines was something I had not read that often, which was kind of interesting. I can absolutely see the postmodern influence of Perec’s writing all throughout the book, for a multitude of reasons. One of these reasons being the creation of the Island ‘W’, which was very similar to the Olympics and the Olympic Village. However, once I began to read more into that storyline that it seems like an analogy for concentration camps. Something that makes me think of this is because of the emphasis on the authority over the athletes and how being an athlete is incredibly strenuous. A specific quote that almost affirmed this idea was this one, “If you just look at the Athletes, if you just look: in their striped gear they look like caricatures of turn-of-the-century sportsmen as, with their elbows in, they lunge into a grotesque sprint”. I highly doubt that the reference of ‘striped gear’ was coincidentally put into the narrative, when individuals placed in concentration camps were forced to wear striped clothing. The realization that what Perec is writing about alludes to something way more serious is incredibly bittersweet and telling of the authors life. I know that the book was sort of influenced by Perec’s life, but I find it sort of difficult to decipher which parts of his life are true and false within the novel. This has me thinking about Jon’s lecture on the book, and how this type of autobiographical fiction could arguably be considered a form of narcissism. I have yet to come to a conclusion as to whether this novel could fall under that category, but I do have a feeling that parts of the novel were changed to be more engaging and compelling.
Something else that I found very consistent was the mentioning of the main characters childhood; It seems so obvious, as it is literally in the title of the novel, but it is so constant within the book. I found the constant mentioning of memories to be kind of nice, but sometimes sad. It is hard because the main character doesn’t really remember his childhood, and has very few memories of his parents. I found that a lot of these memories seem like they’re being woven together by the desire to have something to remember his parents by. I can understand the difficulty of trying to remember something from so long ago, but it pains me that he has to piece so little of what memories he has left with things his brain is trying to fill in for him. This book is packed with meaning, allegories and metaphors, and I think many people should read it. The way that its written is sort of secretive, and I believe that was the authors intention. My final question I have is how would the story differ if it was written without the postmodern influence the novel has? Is there any way to have W, or the Memory of Childhood without having postmodernism in the novel?
