Description
Book SynopsisIn this life-size game of Clue, six psychiatric patients inParis’s Saint Anne’s Hospital are suspects in the murder of Dr. Black. Though Not a Clue tells the stories of these possible assassins, theirlives,and what has brought them to the hospital, the true focus of ChloéDelaume’s intense and tumultuous novel is not merely to discoverthe identity of the murderer.Rather, bycleverly combining humor with the day-to-day effects of life’s unrelenting compromises, Not a Clueis an astutecommentary on the current state of literary production and consumption.
Masterfully juggling an omniscient narratrix, an accusing murder victim, at least six possible suspects as well as their psychiatrists, and a writer who intervenes by refusing to intervene, Delaume uses the characters, weapons, and rooms of the board game Clue to challenge—sometimes violently, sometimes playfully—the norms of typography, syntax, and narrative convent
Trade Review
Praise for the original French edition
“Like a lace maker, [Delaume] stitches together words, tears apart adjectives, tugs on adjectives, swells with parenthetical asides, and drenches her prose with equal doses of references to mythology as to pop songs.”—Émilie Grangeray, Le Monde
“With dazzling virtuosity, with its pirouettes, winks, and dizzying mirrored reflections, the final third of the novel in particular brings to mind both baroque esthetics and The Lady from Shanghai’s hall of mirrors. The whole thing is as exhilarating as it is moving.”—Catherine Henry, Benzine Magazine
Table of Contents
Introduction by Dawn M. Cornelio
Studio
First Officer
Miss Scarlet
Miss Scarlet in the Kitchen
Miss Scarlet in the Kitchen with the Monkey Wrench
Study (Reload)
Professor Plum
Professor Plum in the Ballroom
Professor Plum in the Ballroom with the Candlestick
Second Officer
Gardens
Mrs. White
Mrs. White in the Lounge
Mrs. White in the Lounge with the Lead Pipe
Hall
Third Officer
Dining Room
Fourth Officer
Colonel Mustard
Colonel Mustard in the Billiard Room
Colonel Mustard in Billiard Room with the Revolver
Passageway(s)
Fifth Officer
Mrs. Peacock
Mrs. Peacock in the Library
Mrs. Peacock in the Library with the Rope
Swamp
Sixth Officer
Mr. Green
Mr. Green in the Conservatory
Endgame
