Novels in Three Lines by Félix Fénéon, trans. Luc SanteNew York Review of Books, 2007

I read this book in March but forgot to write about it at the time: it’s a collection of short news items by Fénéon, published anonymously in a French newspaper in 1906. They’re mostly police-blotter items, sometimes sad, sometimes funny, often worded in a clever or interesting way. On page 85, for example: “”M. Jules Kerzerho was president of a gymnastics club, and yet he was run over trying to jump into a streetcar in Rueil.” Or on page 99: “An unknown person painted the walls of the Pantin cemetery yellow; Dujardin wandered naked through Saint-Ouen-l’Aumône. Crazy people, apparently.” Exercises in concision and condensation.