Her Streets are Now Ours: A review of Jacques Roubaud’s The form of a city
The Details: published July 2006 by Dalkey Archive Press (www.dalkeyarchive.com), $13.95 paperback, 247 pages, ISBN: 1-56478-383-9 The Book: A collection of 150 poems (1991-1998) organized into 10 thematic sections, varying by style and subject, with translation by Keith and Rosmarie Waldrop. It is a grand tour of Paris, the City of Light. The Poet: Jacques Roubaud has four novels and two books of poetry available in English translation. He is a member of the innovative literary group Oulipo, whose work with form, constraint and memory this collection clearly exemplifies. The Context: An exploration of the conditions and changes of the beloved city that has inspired so many of the world’s great artists—poets like Rimbaud, Francois Villon, and Baudelaire; painters like Tolouse-Latrec and the Montmartre personalities in dance and music and other entertainments that he immortalized; composers like Michel Legrand; playwrights and theorists such as the four Jeans—Anouilh, Genet, Sartre, ...