A short life of the author
Jean Echenoz (b. 1947) was born on 26 December 1947 in Orange, Vaucluse, France. He studied sociology and civil engineering. He has published with Les Éditions de Minuit — the legendary French publisher associated with Beckett, Robbe-Grillet, and the nouveau roman — since his first novel.
Life and Career
Echenoz’s early novels — Le Méridien de Greenwich (1979), Cherokee (1983, Prix Médicis), L’Équipée malaise (1986) — were postmodern reworkings of genre fiction: thrillers, adventure stories, and spy novels emptied of their conventional stakes and refilled with deadpan irony and precise, elegant prose.
Big Blondes (1995) — about a detective searching for a disappeared singer — and I’m Gone (Je m’en vais, 1999) — about an art dealer who travels to the Canadian Arctic to retrieve artifacts from a shipwreck — won the Prix Goncourt.
His biographical novels are his most widely translated works: Ravel (2006) — about the last decade of Maurice Ravel’s life, including the composition of Boléro and his decline into aphasia — is 120 pages of exquisite prose. Running (Courir, 2008) — about Emil Zátopek, the Czech long-distance runner — and Lightning (Des Éclairs, 2010) — about Nikola Tesla — are similarly compressed.
14 (2012) was about five men from the same village in World War I.
Key Works
- I’m Gone (1999)
- Ravel (2006)
- Running (2008)
Collecting Echenoz
French firsts (Éditions de Minuit) are the true editions. English translations (New Press, The New Press) bring $10–$25.