Works

the long version

“A book describes works conceived of but not realized by its author.” Like *Suicide* and *Autoportrait*, *Works* is another of Edouard Levé’s bewitching reconceptions of what the novel can (or should) do. A list of 533 artistic projects, beginning with its own description—both likely and unlikely, sober and ridiculous; some of which Levé later realized, most of which he did not—*Works* ranks with the fiction of Georges Perec for its seemingly limitless, ingenious, and comical inventiveness. A lampoon of conceptual art—if not, indeed, an exemplar of its charms at their best—*Works* is another piece in the puzzle of Levé’s brief and fascinating life.