Readers of the contemporary novel in France are witnessing the most
astonishing reinvigoration of narrative prose since the New Novel of the
1950s. In the last few years, bold, innovative, and richly compelling
novels have been written by a variety of young writers. These texts
question traditional strategies of character, plot, theme, and message;
and they demand new strategies of reading, too. Choosing ten novels
published during the 1990s as examples of that trend, Warren Motte
traces the resurgence of the novel in France. He argues that each of the
novels under consideration here, quite apart from what other stories it
tells, presents a?fable?of the novel that deals with the genre's
possibilities, limitations, and future as a cultural form.