With his research completed, all he has left to do is sit down and write. Unfortunately, he can’t decide how to refer to his subject—Titian, le Titien, Vecellio, Titian Vecellio—so instead he starts watching TV continuously, until one day he decides to renounce the most addictive of twentieth-century inventions. As he spends his summer still not writing his book, he is haunted by television, from the video surveillance screens in a museum to a moment when it seems everyone in Berlin is tuned in to Baywatch. One of Toussaint’s funniest antiheroes, the protagonist of Television turns daily occurrences into an entertaining ref lection on society and the inf luence of television on our lives.

Jean-Philippe Toussaint is the author of seven novels, including The Bathroom and Monsieur, both of which have been published in English translation. His work has been compared to that of Samuel Beckett, Jacques Tati, Ivan Oblomov, and the films of Jim Jarmusch.

Staff Review:
This Belgian book, a comical novel with a slight dark edge, memorably deals with work avoidance. As a scholar struggles to avoid television while he works on his thesis, he ends up obsessing over tv, setting elaborate rules for himself regarding where and when he can and can't watch it. In the process, he does just about everything except get any work done, alienating many friends, colleagues and neighbors along the way. I'd read one prior novel by Toussaint called Monsieur, and both make for good, quick reads that remind me of Peter Handke's great run of novels from the 70s; Toussaint might be a little less diabolical in his outlook, but like Handke he has lots of fun presenting absurd and irrational thoughts and actions through deceptively simple, rational prose.
-Eric Allen Hatch, Atomic Books Blog