No number of re-readings dull the comic genius of this enduring hilarious classic. The plot is simple: while on board a crowded midday bus, the narrator observes an odd-looking, long-necked character claiming another passenger has deliberately jostled him. Later the bizarre complainant is seen being advised about a button. Nothing too complex in all that - the inventive magic lies in the fact that Queneau (190376) wrote the same little tale ninety-nine times in a dazzling variety of styles and tones including opera English, abusive, olfactory, telegraphic, reactionary, Latin and haiku. Queneau once explained that the idea came to him after hearing Bach's The Art of the Fugue. As a demonstration of linguistic verve and absurdist humour, Exercises, first published in 1947, should live forever.
