The most recent addition to the complete review is my review of Nobel laureate Patrick Modiano's After the Circus, a 1992 novel just out in English in Yale University Press' Margellos World Republic of Letters-series, in Mark Polizzotti's translation.
This is now the tenth Modiano under review at the complete review, and the one difficulty I now have in judging each new work is how much the accumulated familiarity with his story/stories affects my perception of the latest variation (which is often an old variation, on top of it, since these aren't being translated/published in sequence ...).
I think familiarity with the Modiano-basics -- his backstory -- helps, but even aside from that, this seems a standout -- in part because it also stands well alone, apart form all that backstory.
This is now the tenth Modiano under review at the complete review, and the one difficulty I now have in judging each new work is how much the accumulated familiarity with his story/stories affects my perception of the latest variation (which is often an old variation, on top of it, since these aren't being translated/published in sequence ...).
I think familiarity with the Modiano-basics -- his backstory -- helps, but even aside from that, this seems a standout -- in part because it also stands well alone, apart form all that backstory.
