Death Sentence by Maurice Blanchot

French writer, theorist and philosopher extraordinaire, Blanchot is a modernist writer dreaming up post-modernism as he goes along. He was a close friend of Derrida and a great supporter of his work. Many of Derrida's chief concerns regarding Deconstruction filter in Blanchot's work. Death Sentence (l'Arret de Mort) reads more like an essay than a work of fiction. There is no real plot, merely a first person narrative which is written in the form of a confession. Something horrible has happened, something terrible which needs to be told. The protagonist confides in the reader and hopes he can tell the truth, for the truth is all that really matters to him. That is the beginning and the end of all meaning. The book is exceptionally short and requires several readings in order to understand its complexity. The story revolves around the women in the narrators' life, all of whom are strange, unusual creatures, existing and non-existing at the same time. The first half is chiefly concerned with illness. A woman the protagonist knows is dying of a mysterious disease. The second half follows another close relationship he develops with a woman he meets.
Once you're done with this book, everything you read after appears stale and vapid.