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Sophie Calle: The Address Book (2012)

by Sophie Calle(Favorite Author)

3.84 of 5 Votes: 5

languge

English

genre

Nonfiction

publisher

Siglio

review 1: This is one of those concepts I wish I’d come up with first.Sophie Calle, while walking one day, happened upon a man’s address book that had fallen in the road. She picked it up, copied the pages, returned it to the owner, Pierre, and then proceeded to call and meet with the contacts in Pierre’s address book with the intention of piecing together an impression of his identity.Wow.If this sounds like a total invasion of privacy, I agree. A brilliant invasion of privacy? Couldn’t agree more. What emerges from Sophie’s interviews is a subjective yet coherent portrait of Pierre. We get a sense for his personhood and feel, though we never meet him, that we instinctively, albeit a bit through methods that feel a bit stalker-ish, know Pierre.I was amazed that minia... moreture narratives emerged over the course of Calle’s meetings. That the stories provided by random, unconnected individuals could produce what seemed to be a relatively comprehensive impression of Pierre encouraged me to contemplate the ways in which identity is perceived and observed. Additionally, I enjoyed the unexpected portraits of the interviewees that emerged, ever so brief as they were. The content of Pierre's life that they were willing to divulge and the way in which they presented the information was very telling. The Address Book is an inspiration, an open invitation to consider the elements of identity that comprise a person. That it is also an invasion of privacy is interesting, given our current climate of the voluntary sacrifice of privacy. Calle tied her narrative together beautifully, accompanying the text with fitting photographs and paintings, creating a portrait of personhood and a brilliant work of art I will not soon forget.Man, I wish I had this idea first.
review 2: Sophie Calle found an address book lost on a Paris street and she contacted many of the people listed in the book to create a portrait of the owner--a man she never directly names. The different impressions related by the various friends, colleagues and lovers of this man form a fractured but fascinating picture. Ultimately an interesting voyeuristic experience--the sophisticated French version of reality TV--that is pleasurable and engaging. less

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