by Alain Robbe-Grillet

isbn: 0881334758
subject: Fiction and Literature
finished: 4/5/1998

Jealousy is a short novel set on a colonial plantation in the tropics. The narrator is self-effacing to the point that the book often appears to be written in the third person; although the subject matter is mundane, his cinematic, meticulous descriptions and lack of power to act are chilling. Jealousy has no real beginning or ending; it skips obsessively back and forth in time, repeating scenes a little differently each time. This was my first Robbe-Grillet book; I'll definitely be reading more.