The Real Life of Shadows
By Jean Frémon
The stylistic elegance and intellectual brilliance of Jean Frémon's writing about artists is unrivaled in both his essays and fictions. I cannot think of another writer who lives so fully in these very different worlds. He regularly publishes essays in which he wears his vast knowledge lightly, deals directly and deftly with complex issues, and always helps the reader to see more, and to think in another way. And as if this were not enough, in The Book of Shadows we are the lucky recipients of fictions full of love, tenderness, and sympathy. As with his essays, there is not a drop of sentimentality or dogma here, but there is a lot of necessary nourishment and original insight.
Jean Frémon's Real Life of Shadows delivers its dazzling récits with delicately calibrated irony. Frémon writes in "the words of others" tales of stunning quiet mystery. His painterly journey, ably translated by Cole Swensen, portrays a parallel present of chance and circumstance, where fragmented narrative, or narrative fragments, fall into the gaps as well as the text, intervals fulfilling inscription.
— Norma Cole
Jean Frémon has published numerous novels and books in France, including Le jardin botanique (P.O.L., 1998), Le singe mendiant (P.O.L., 1991), and L'île des morts (P.O.L., 1994). His work has been translated by Lydia Davis, Serge Gavronsky, Stacy Doris, Norma Cole, and Tom Mandel, among others. Associated with Galerie Lelong (Paris, New York, and Zurich), he has written essays and monographs on Robert Ryman, Sean Scully, and Tápies.
2009 98 pages $18.00 ISBN: 978-0-942996-67-8
Read a review by Douglas Messerli
