The Occupation Trilogy review

       The most recent additions to the complete review are my reviews of Nobel laureate Patrick Modiano's first three novels, now published in one volume, as The Occupation Trilogy:

• La Place de l'Étoile
• The Night Watch
• Ring Roads

       The latter two were previously available, published in English in the early 1970s (in the same translations, which have now been revised by Frank Wynne), but this is the first opportunity English-speaking readers have to read his debut, La Place de l'Étoile. (And you can sort of see why US/UK publishers might have hesitated after the first two -- as they did -- not quite sure where this guy was going; Modiano is definitely easier to appreciate once there's a critical mass of his work to work with. But waiting so long on La Place de l'Étoile was a mistake, even steeped in all things (well, certain things) French as it is.)

       Given how slim these (and essentially all of Modiano's) works are, it makes some sense to package these in a three-for-one volume (as Yale University Press also did with Suspended Sentences last year) -- though admirably Bloomsbury has, or is, also bringing these out in stand-alone volumes (at least in the UK). But there's always the danger of a mix-and-match set -- so also with Suspended Sentences -- and it's amusing to note that, for example, the Germans also published a Pariser Trilogie ('Paris Trilogy') that includes The Night Watch and Ring Roads -- but completed it with Livret de famille (1977), rather than La Place de l'Étoile .....