"The warmth of friendship between the two is palpable, with somecomic teasing: 'Roland speaks quietly,' Robbe-Grillet says. 'Idon't speak quietly,' Barthes objects. 'You don't speak quietly,'his friend ripostes, 'but you take the precaution of always havinga cigarette between your lips, which, as you know [...] doesn'tallow you to shout things out.' The modern literary event-goerwonders melancholically: où sont les Gitanes d'antan?"
StevenPoole, The Guardian
"The book's arrival in English should be embraced as a challengeto the many reductions of 'French theory' to a mausoleum ofmovements, -isms, and masterable ideas. A disapporving critic oncecalled Barthes the Pierre Laval to Robbe-Grillet's MarshalPétain, but this volume
shows them to be eels - not quite apair, not easy to catch, but always electric."
Times Literary Supplement
"The image of Robbe-Grillet lying in the bath reciting texts byBarthes that he has learned by heart is only one of many unexpecteddelights of this extremely engaging little book. The dialoguebetween Barthes and Robbe-Grillet at Cerisy - friendly fencing -teaches much about each of them."
Jonathan Culler, Cornell University
"Robbe-Grillet describes his friendship with Barthes as aliterary love affair without intimacy: 'un certain type de rapportamoureux'. This paradox is traced in its complexity and mysterythrough the four brief texts of this collection in which thenovelist explores the different phases of his relationship with hismost eminent critic, laying bare their shared vulnerability andfragility in a way which compels the reader's attention."
Christina Howells, University of Oxford
