"Wishes" by Georges Perec; Translated by Mara Cologne Whyte-Hall (Wakefield Press)

ISBN: 978-1-939663-33-7

Homophonic wordplay is language that plays with the rooted word or expression.  The meaning is both what one hears of that word, as well as the spelling and presence of that word.  There was no one on this planet like Georges Perec.  This late author is perhaps the most playful prose artist to use language.  Every year, up to his death, Perec would make and print out a little book to give out to friends, that consist of these homophonic wordplays, that in turn become little narratives or at the very least a joke.  Even a bad corny joke!   

"Wishes" is a compilation of these homophonic works, that are funny, profound, or just plain surrealistically silly.  What I have to imagine is a hellish ride into the French language for a translator, is an enjoyable read into another culture's think pattern.  Perec's work overall is always humorous, but there is also another side where he is focused on language and all of its limitations, poetry, expression, and sensuality through its textural meanings that seem endless.  A perfect book for a writer, or one who loves to write - because one is thinking of language as they write, and surely Georges Perec is the master who kicked the door open for us to wander in its maze.