Perec, the legendary author of Life: A User's Manual, was fascinated by the possibility of employing non-fictional languages for altogether more mischievous purposes. This volume collects various texts in which he uses the expressionless terminology of sociology, entomology and linguistics to achieve effects they are distinctly designed to avoid. Not surprisingly, it is experimental', but it is also strange, preposterous and highly entertaining. Harry Matthews co-wrote one of the essays.'