Zazie in the Metro. Exercises in Style

Zazie in the Metro

Impish, foul-mouthed Zazie arrives in Paris from the country to stay with her uncle Gabriel. All she really wants to do is ride the metro, but finding it shut because of a strike, Zazie looks for other means of amusement and is soon caught up in a comic adventure that becomes wilder and more manic by the minute.

In 1960 Queneau's cult classic was made into a hugely successful film by Louis Malle. Packed full of wordplay and phonetic games, 'Zazie in the Metro' remains as stylish and witty today as it did back then.


Exercises in Style

The plot of Exercises in Style is quite simple: a man gets into an argument with another passenger on a bus. However, this anecdote is told ninety-nine more times, each in a radically different style, as a sonnet, an opera, in slang, and with many more permutations. This virtuoso set of variations is a linguistic rust-remover, and a guide to literary forms.