I have to start by saying this book is nothing like any book I have read before in the fact that there aren’t just two stories going on, but one being an autobiography and the other being fiction. In saying this, I did not enjoy the stories as much as I was hoping to, as I was often confused as the author jumped between the two stories. I also had difficulty in piecing the two stories together, and understanding why the author chose to combine them.
Of the two stories, I was definitely more drawn to Perec’s autobiography of his childhood. It was really interesting to me that the idea of memory was a recurring theme throughout the story, as Perec chose to write a story about his childhood, while not having remembered a large portion of it. His loss of memory is demonstrated multiple times throughout the entire story, as we read on page 28 “The memories I have of my father are not many.” and again on page 122 “(that doesn’t mean she didn’t come: it means I don’t remember).” I almost felt like it was necessary for the author to recount his memories from his childhood, in an attempt to understand and cope with what he went through. As both of his parents were taken from him due to the war, where his father died fighting and his mother died in the Auschwitz concentration camp, it is quite obvious the pain and trauma that Perec endured as a child that could have caused some gaps in his memory. I felt sympathy for Perec as not having many childhood memories, especially ones with your deceased parents, would be tough to deal with throughout your life. “For years, I took comfort in such an absence of history: its objective crispness, its apparent obviousness, its innocence protected me; but what did they protect me from…” I feel that this line is a good illustration to what I had previously stated. His recollection of memories shows how he is trying to come to terms with what he went through as a child, which seems like something he had not previously done. In order to protect himself. He also talks a bit about how he imagines his parents would be if they had lived, which I think is another way of showing how he had attempted to cope with the situations he was put through.
My questions for this week:
Why do you think Perec chose to include the story of W along with his autobiography?
What relationship did those two stories share?
Hi Sophia! Our blog posts are so similar, it seems like we picked up on a lot of the same things! I was personally more drawn to the fictional universe, but I think that’s just because of the shock value of the whole thing. I’m not sure what the connection is and I also posed a similar question in my blog post. I think maybe given the context of the book and Perec’s life the island could be a sort of metaphor for Nazi occupation and concentration camps? I’m not super confident in that answer and would have trouble elaborating further but I feel like there is some connection there.
-Mackenzie Dewar-Pratt
Thanks for your questions, Sophia! I have added them to our list of possible discussion topics.
To add to your question, how do we read the last two paragraphs on page 6, beginning with When I was thirteen I made up a story which I told
and drew in pictures. Later I forgot it. Seven years ago,
one evening, in Venice, I suddenly remembered that
this story was called W and that it was, in a way, if not
the story of my childhood, then at least a story of my
childhood…”
and to challenge your question, especially in light of what is written above, can we really say that “W” is included “along with” the autobiography? Or is their relationship more complex than that of an appendix or addition to the autobiography?
Hi Sophia!
Although the two stories were different, I feel as though we could not have had one without the other. I think even in the autobiography Perec’s description of his childhood is spotty at best, and likely isn’t fully the truth of what happened. I think in a way, W helps him heal with not knowing the full truth of his childhood. In his fully imaginary story, there are still some aspects that seem to be pulled from real life, such as not having his birth parents around. I think Perec maybe was trying to blur the lines between fiction and non-fiction as he wrote this, if for no other reason to make the idea of not having many true memories easier on himself.