Just Read “Command Performance” (Echenoz) 

This short novel is a play of extremes. The plot is parodicly overdone yet the writing is quite casual (no quotation marks here). 

It’s a detective novel about a middle-aged man fired from his job as a flight attendant without any real skills or prospects. He decides to become a private investigator and ends up getting tied up in a series of events with a minor political party. 

This novel fixates on class and the role of financial difficulties in consuming a person’s thinking. In particular, when satellite debris crashes into a grocery store, Gerard notes that it’s inconvenient to go to a more expensive grocery store in his neighborhood because he can barely afford it and feels great shame being reminded of this regularly. In fact, his precarious financial state is exacerbated by his decision to become a private investigator (while barely being able to afford Bic pens for his office) but the thought of making money without having to deal with his blemished record is appealing. This desperation leads him into certain difficult circumstances that become nearly inescapable. 

“Command Performance” is a great short novel that moves quickly but feels like it could be a full-length work. It’s a “genre” type work that’s both serious and playful.