It’s a quick read and you can share it with friends.
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Oh wow. Another member of the Oulipo school…
I am listening to this on audiobook. It’s so good, the playback glitched and I found myself so annoyed! I’m really enjoying this 
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I just got, “Run Rose Run,” from the library. Have to return it in 1 week, no renewals, so am reading it pretty quickly. Sure shows a different side of the entertainment business.
It’s June 1st! Welcome to our discussion of The Anomaly by Hervé Le Tellier.
That was a wild ride (no pun intended!) and although the book had its moments of whimsy, it ended on rather a dark note. But how could it not? There is no happily-ever-after for the “duplicates” on that plane, nor for their loved ones. And there is a strong suggestion at the end that the “End Times” are indeed near, with more chaos to ensue.
I thought the story was very creative and enjoyed the “meta” aspect of the book – i.e., we are apparently reading the novel that Victor has written, or at least that’s my takeaway.
I couldn’t find any discussion questions online, but wow is there a lot of commentary. Apparently, this book pushed some buttons!
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I had to look this one up – wasn’t familiar with Oulipo.
Written by the current president of Oulipo, the French organisation dedicated to pushing the boundaries of experimental literature, The Anomaly debates the nature of life, existence and what the point of it all might be, just when the pandemic was prompting similar questions in all of us. Double jeopardy: The Anomaly is plane brilliant - The New European
The photo that accompanies the article is something. Must have been an identical twins event.
Like Oscar Wilde and Fyodor Dostoevsky before him, le Tellier is fascinated by the literary possibilities presented by a double, and has been ever since a man once stopped him in the street and said, “We know each other. I know you because I saw you in the mirror 20 years ago”. As a science writer and former mathematics teacher, he is well-equipped to tackle the subject matter with all its potential consequences on both micro and macro levels.
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Yes, it was a wild ride. I loved the book and my immediate reaction was a strong desire to reread it and catch all the references I missed on the first round. I tend to like books that are character driven, but from time to time it’s fun to go in a completely different direction. You begin thinking you are in some noir detective story, then maybe some sort of depressing literary fiction, then a tale of dying romance, then a man dying… At some point you start noticing that all the chapters except the first two are ending the same way… Cue the eerie music.
I’d dismiss it all as a pastiche of a Black Mirror show or a Star Trek episode, except Le Tellier knows exactly what he’s doing with the sly wink to the number 42, or the dialog from Close Encounters of the Third Kind.
The only thing that surprised me is that the idea of being part of a computer program bothers people so much. I remember speculating with friends about ideas like this in high school. In the end I think it doesn’t really matter, as Descartes said, “I think therefore I am”, so you might as well proceed on that assumption. (But please don’t send nukes into weird anomalies. Thanks.)
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My favorite part was the way the character of the President of the United States was portrayed. Priceless.
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No doubt who that was!
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I enjoyed the book very much. If you didn’t know what the book was about, would you have sensed what was coming? The first part of book, if I recall correctly, is devoted to character introduction/development, and I also liked that part just for what it was.
And yes, the portrayal of the American president was extremely amusing.
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I thought it was interesting that while he used the real name of the French president and the and for Chinese president, the American president remains nameless. I wonder if that was intentional on the author’s part, or if his publishers made him do it.
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I’ve read in multiple places that most people either love or hate this book. I’m actually somewhere in the middle (ha, often the case for me on many things in life). I’m really glad to have read it though.
One thing that surprised me was so many US references in a French book. Hats off to those who read it in French version.
In some ways it had a bit of the flavor of the “Manifest” series on Netflix, where a large airplane flight disappeared for 5 years then reappeared with unaged passengers.
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I was greatly annoyed during the first third of the book, when the different characters were introduced. I’m used to two plots being told at the same time, with two different sets of characters who eventually intertwine, but after the 10th or so character was introduced, I was getting overwhelmed trying to keep people separate. It wasn’t until the beginning of Part II that I understood. But I still needed to go back from time to time to remember who’s who.
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I found this book unique. Blake was the most unsettling passenger to me. He was very analytic and calculating and absolutely ruthless. It was interesting how he combined his varying personas—assassin and vegetarian chef.
I felt bad for the poor young girl that had been abused by her dad. I’m not sure why that was thrown into the mix.
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I think Sophie was there partly to show that good things could come out of the situation. It was the drawings of the second Sophie that clued the psychiatrists into what was going on.
Each person on the plane had some sort of double life, or at least a secret.
- Blake – He comes first because he was already leading a double life. And he decides instantly that there can’t be two of him.
- Victor Miesel – He comes second. There’s only going to be one of him because Victor March killed himself, but he gets a chance at a second life with a different ending.
- Lucie Bogaert – I found her the least interesting, but the idea that a couple that knew it was going to fall apart might have a second chance was intriguing. (Don’t think it was going to happen though.) She’s keeping secrets about her dying sister.
- David Markle – Like Victor, he’s already dead by the time David June arrives. Can they do anything different for him? What’s it like for his wife and brother to lose a loved one twice?
- Sophia Kleffman – She gets her childhood back.
- Joanna Woods – Joanna March gets married thanks in part to the scary flight, but sharing husbands, just not going to work.
- Slimboy – Someone else who was leading a double life. He’s able to come up with a happy outcome by creating a twin.
- André Vannier – He’s hopeful that he can get back with Lucie. I think his odds are slim to none.
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So I zipped the through this book during The weekend, finished it yesterday.
I’m reading your posts to see what I missed, and why I’m tilting in the “ didn’t like it / would not recommend it “ category.
Actually, the first half, I did enjoy, and it was a page turner, but when the Junes started meeting the Marches, one by one, I really got bored.
Is there some kind of thread linking these characters and their second chances, ie cancer, death / love, punishing father child abuser, and then socio- pathic Blake!
And, the humor ? Mmmmmm I was amused by the MIT, who looked like so many movie stars, I found all the espresso, coffee comments amusing, but I missed the humor.
Could have been my state of mind, Too,
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Math mom I also, had to list the characters, and note their traits, their Junes vs Marches , and their final outcome. What happened to Blake ? Did he escape?
Oh and the ending, ? Help please decode that
That was so deliciously funny! I was chuckling as I created mental pictures of the scenes in which he figures.
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I grew up about five miles from Fort Dix, and when he mentioned the Hindenburg crashed there, wrong !!
The Hindenburg. Crashed in Lakehurst,New Jersey,
Perhaps that was intentional by the author
, but Trenton, Fort Dix and Lakehurst are many miles apart, and he indicated they were one, location.
When I finished the book a couple of weeks ago, I turned to my husband and said, “That is one weird book”. I was more a fan of the middle of the book than the start or finish. First there were all those apparently unrelated characters to absorb, and at the end all of the ?metaphysical? meanderings. But the middle is where it all started to pull together.
I did enjoy all of the cultural references from the USA. From the reviews I read, it seems like there were a ton of literary references from France, none of which I was aware. I got a kick out of the two Princeton mathematicians having to come up with an absurd strategy for a completely unexpected situation, and it later being followed to the letter. And only Victor recognizing the questioning lifted from Close Encounters of the Third Kind.
There were so many meta references (if that’s the right phrase) that they flew by almost too quickly to catch. I thought I ought to re-read the book for the discussion, but then wasn’t sure I wanted to read it again. I recently read Sea of Tranquility, and between that, this and Cloud Cuckoo Land, I am currently sticking with books that have one set of related characters in one timeline in one reality 
. It’s not that I don’t enjoy sci fi and fantasy and such, but I don’t want my brain to explode.
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