[Butor's] journals stand in the same relationship to other works of this type as do his novels to the traditional novel, for in both he refuses to interpret. Instead, he solicits the participation of the reader whose collaboration becomes an essential part of the book….

Time plays an important part in Où. Le génie du lieu 2, as it does in all of the author's work. Past, present and future are mixed. Weather conditions also figure prominently and impressions predominate of mud in Seoul, rain at Angkor, fog at Santa Barbara, and snow in New Mexico. Above all, the book is governed by an ambivalent love-hate relationship with Paris. There are sections entitled, "I Fled Paris," and "I Hate Paris," but the last words of the journal are grouped together in the form of a love poem to the city to which he is inexorably drawn. "All of...