[Leçon de choses illustrates] one manifestation of myth in recent French fiction: its displacement from the domain of the novel's content to that of its structure.

Structurally, Leçon de choses (1975) is both like and unlike Claude Simon's previous novel, Triptique (1973). It is similar primarily through its tripartite nature: like Triptique, it contains not one but three "plots," each fragmented and interspersed among the bits and pieces of the other two, all of the fragments attaching themselves to their respective neighbors through various exercises in metaphor and metonymy. The differences between the two novels are threefold. The three plots of Leçon de choses are not only structurally integrated but are as shall be demonstrated shortly all components of a larger "superplot," encompassing all the elements of the novel; that is to say, the unity of Leçon de choses is more immediately evident than that of...