The hero of this cool novel is 'Monsieur', a nameless young man whose everyday life is followed in precise detail during the course of the narrative. Almost incidentally we discover that Monsieur has an executive job and a secretary; that he is rejected by his fiancée but is championed by her parents; that he unwillingly types out his neighbour's scientific treatise and attends parties with (self-) important people; and that he has a brother and twin nieces aged six to whom he tries to explain the great verities of life while babysitting. Monsieur is solitary and observant: he muses on everything from his
Rotring
pen to the arrangement of the stars in the night sky over Paris. His universe is described with a combination of blandness and wit that turns the ordinary into wondrous oddity.