This is a very good book by Laurent Binet. He is one of France most important writers of the moment, having won the Goncourt Award (the most prestigious award for literature in French language). Those who read HHhH will find this title also a very interesing read.

Exciting and beautifully translated, but a minimal knowledge of philosophy will help in its enjoyment...

Roland Barthes gets hit by a laundry van in early 1980, which I'd never heard of for some reason, and dies soon after – but what if it wasn't an accident? What if it was murder? Thus begins the investigation of inspector Bayard and the young lecturer Herzog on the hunt for the titular lost manuscript.

I was thrilled when I first heard about this book, because I love novels that are set in an academic background (even better if there's murder involved) and I've been wanting to read Binet's Prix Goncourt winning first novel "HHhH" for the longest time. This one, however, didn't convince me. It started out promising, I loved the setting in different European cities, but at some point the sheer amount of real-life characters, lengthy, repetitive scenes, pseudo-intellectual language (yes, I'm aware that it's supposed to be satirical), and effort to fit as much information as possible into the story turned my reading experience into an exhausting pastime and I dnf'd around the 70% mark. It felt like the novel lost track of the story it had originally been wanting to tell and, if you removed the whole intelligentsia, the only thing left would be a flat roman policier. Nonetheless, I admire the author for his extensive research and I'm still planning on reading "HHhH".

thank you to netgalley and the publisher for providing me with an arc.

The premise of ‘The 7th Function of Language’ by Laurent Binet is based on a true story: the French postmodernist Roland Barthes really was hit by a laundry van in Paris in February 1980 succumbing to his injuries a month later. However, Binet’s second novel translated from the French by Sam Taylor imagines a scenario in which Barthes was murdered and police detective Jacques Bayard is tasked with solving the case. It later emerges that Barthes was in possession of a document revealing the secret 7th function of language. Bayard employs semiologist Simon Herzog to help him solve the case and a series of preposterous scenarios soon follows, featuring fictionalised versions of every postmodernist you can think of (Foucault, Derrida, Althusser, Kristeva etc etc).

There are good reasons why detective fiction doesn’t normally mix with subjects as dry as linguistics and semiotics. Although French intellectualism is a subject which is ripe for satire, ‘The 7th Function of Language’ will either delight or irritate admirers of postmodernism while everyone else will probably just be baffled. I am familiar with Barthes, Kristeva and numerous other 20th century French academics from my undergraduate studies but clearly no longer familiar enough to understand all of the references and in-jokes. You have to really appreciate French postmodernism to enjoy this book and unfortunately I am not one of those people.

Binet has a natural affinity for the unconventional and the absurd without taking himself too seriously as a writer but overall ‘The 7th Function of Language’ is too wacky for my personal taste.

Probably one of my favourite reads of the year. A recreation of Roland Barthes' most unfortunate demise filled with humour, linguistic theories, fictionalised versions of real life academics and politicians plus a cop trying to navigate the world of French inteligentsia. Highly recommended.

Raucously funny romp through semiotics, linguistics and 1980s french philosophy.
A philosophical thriller that turns the study of semiotics into a postmodern murder mystery. With action, sex and humour thrown in for good measure.

I am sorry to offer such negative feedback, but I treally couldn;t get along with 7th function. Right from the outset, it used references I didn't get, imagery that made no sense to me and it felt like a kind of academic in-joke that I was not in on. I was interested in the novel primarily because I haveloves Sam Taylor's original work and I assumed he would bring similar readability to his translation work. But I guess translators can only ever be as good as their source material. So no thanks, not for me.

Brilliant thriller underpinned with laughter. Politics, presidents and police. An absolute pleasure.

This book could have been difficult . It requires some knowledge and interest in arcane subjects but whilst i didnt know everything mentioned the tone and manner of the book and the sense of fun carries it.

It can be read as thriller as criticism or just a really good interesting novel

February 1980, after lunch with François Mitterrand, promising politician of the socialists and candidate for the 1981 presidential election, the literary theorist Roland Barthes is run over by a lorry and later dies in hospital. What first looks like an ordinary car accident, turns out to be malicious murder. But who would want to murder Barthes? Superintendent Jacques Bayard has to investigate and soon understands that he does not understand anything at all of what all these intellectuals talk about. He needs help and contacts Simon Herzog, a young lecturer on linguistics who not only has to translate the theoretical paraphernalia but also helps him to unravel the mystery of the 7th function of language.

Forming an opinion on Laurent Binet’s novel is not easy. Well, actually, I really enjoyed it, but I can easily understand people who just hate it and find it boring. So, what does it need for a reader to indulge in it?
1. If you are a linguist – jackpot. The novel is full of linguistic theory. Having at least a slight notion of what structuralism, deconstruction, semiotics and of course the communicative functions of language are, helps a lot to enjoy the novel since you do not have to pay too much attention to the theoretical passages (which will certainly help if you do not know anything about it).
2. An interest in French intellectuals, or intellectuals gathering in Paris at the end of the 1970s/beginning of the 1980s. We meet Julia Kristeva, Philippe Sollers, BHL, Sartre, de Beauvoir, Eco, Foucault – also PPDA plays a minor role – and also Derrida and Searle pop up. Seeing them interact is just hilarious. At least as long as you find them interesting.
3. French politics: Giscard d’Estaing vs. Mitterrand. Two of the greatest politicians of the second half of the 20th century which could hardly differ more than they did.
4. Secret Societies of scholars – Freemasons, Illuminati, Rosicrucians, whatever.

Yes, it is a kind of crime novel centred around intellectuals. The crime aspect is not that relevant, there is some kind of suspense – you do want to know what is behind all this – but much more it is a brilliant way of integrating philosophy, linguistics, literary studies etc. into a fictional plot. Binet is a mastermind when it comes to presenting the theory and directly using it within the story, he plays with it and with the reader and if you are ready to play the game, you can have real fun. Apart from this, I really enjoyed his style of writing, it is full of irony, playfulness and spirit:
“25 February 1980 has not yet told us everything. That’s the virtue of a novel: it’s never too late.” (pos. 2236)
or
“We have no way of knowing what Simon dreams about because we are not inside his head, are we?” (pos. 3450)
And the most amusing comment from poor Simon Herzog is:
“I think I’m trapped in a fucking novel.” (pos. 3899)

For me, just the perfect combination of entertainment (the characters are masterly drawn) and intellectually challenging.

Set in the early 90’s around the time of the Giscard-Mitterrand political run-off the novel centres around the death of Barthes in a car accident and the fictional investigation that follows. Police detective Bayard is brought in to investigate and recruits the academic Simon Herzog to help him infiltrate and understand the academic and literary world of Paris. The novel reads partly as a philosophical study and a political drama or spy novel. Throughout the book we are then introduced to the great and the good of mainly French cultural life. The investigation is to find Barthes 7th function of language which would provide a ‘decisive rhetorical advantage’ and therefore would be incredible useful in a Presidential campaign.

As the novel is told by a ‘sadistic, capricious novelist’ not everything or almost nothing is to be believed which gives the novelist scope to include many comic elements, such as the Thomson Twins-eque pair who shadow the first part of the book and various madcap encounters with various shadowy characters in various dens of iniquity.

I was keen to read this book as I loved Laurent Binet’s earlier work (HHhH) but I did struggle with parts of the text. Those with a greater knowledge of academic writings of Michel Foucault, Jacques Derrida, Julia Kristeva, Louis Althusser, Gilles Deleuze, Philippe Sollers and Umberto Eco may get more out of the novel.

With thanks to Random House UK, Vintage Publishing and Netgalley for a review copy.

If I tell you this book is about the death of the author of ‘The Death of the Author’ (Roland Barthes) plus one of the character wonders if he is just a character in a novel, you’ll understand we’re well into metafictional territory here. This is a funny, clever novel but at times it is a little too knowingly clever. Furthermore, if you have little knowledge of linguistic theory, its main players or French politics then I fear a lot of the jokes will be lost on you. This reader has a little knowledge of linguistics from having studied for an MA in English but I reckon a lot of the satire and allusions went over my head.

As well as Barthes, there are parts for real life figures including Michael Foucault, Julia Kristeva, Jacques Derrida, Sarte and Umberto Eco. Whether they would be flattered by their depiction as sex-obsessed, alcohol-dependent individuals constantly engaged in intellectual one-upmanship, I’m not sure. Really, it comes across as a colossal payback for anyone who has ever had to struggle to understand linguistic theory or semiotics.

The story is akin to The Name of the Rose transported to the Paris of the 1980’s with Inspector Bayard given the task of tracking down a document that reveals a previously unknown seventh function of language that will give the possessor unrivalled powers of persuasion (very useful if you want to become President of France). Bayard engages a side-kick in the person of linguistic lecturer, Simon Herzog, who attempts to help Bayard understand some of the concepts, with limited success it has to be said. Simon is probably the most engaging character. I particularly liked the scenes where he uses James Bond films to explain linguistic concepts and decodes drinkers in a bar from their gestures and other indicators, in the manner of Sherlock Holmes with the man who loses the goose in ‘The Blue Carbuncle’.

I really wanted Julia Kristeva to be the culprit (and I’m not saying whether she was or wasn’t) just because I had to study her work as part of my OU course and found it almost impossible to understand.

In the end, the in-jokes and the satire rather overwhelmed the unravelling of the mystery so although I could admire the achievement and the author’s obvious erudition I couldn’t love this book. I admit I struggled through some of the passages.

I’d like to give a big shout-out to translator, Sam Taylor, who had to cope with some extremely abstruse linguistic and semiological concepts.

I received an advance reader copy courtesy of NetGalley and publishers, Random House UK, in return for an honest review.

Clever, funny, stylish, engrossing despite the taxing nature of the subject matter, this is a madly engaging new work by the author of HHhH, a similarly brilliant but less ambitious work of fiction. Binet is modern but appealing, inventive but funny too. What a find.

Well I ploughed through a quarter of it, but gave up, sensing it was not going to improve. Which is a great shame, as I LOVED HHhH. I could follow all the semiotic discussions and background forced on our hapless policeman, but when it came to grovelling about in gay knocking shops and saunas and so on, and in trying to force real people into some weird police story, the book lost all interest for me. It's NOT funny, no matter what other people allege, and the archness with which everything here is a 'sign' (in keeping, of course, with the topic and the sidekick character's knowledge) is wearying. Finally, if it is a pastiche of some forgotten style of philosophical thinking, it's a failure as a parody, in that it falls into the same trap as its topic – that trap of being needless, pointless, uninteresting and actually a little stupid.

Following on from Lawrence Binet's incredible HHhH is a translation of Binet's 2005 novel The 7th Function of Language. It follows the suspicious circumstances about Roland Barthes death and will keep you hooked from early on. Binet's trademark style from HHhH is prominent in 7th Function and it is Binet's unique narration that is the true reason to read this book (so, if like me you loved HHhH you should try this one too). The 7th Function also features an all-star cast/ensemble ranging from Foucault to Kristeva, it would also make a great gift for any English student.

After the emotive and hard-hitting HHhH, here Binet is taking a kind of book vacation as he concocts a playful, mischievous tale of murder, poisoned umbrellas, political skullduggery and a world-wide secret organisation that has been in existence since ancient Athens and which knows the closely guarded secret of the titular seventh function of language..

Taking its lead from the absurd death of Barthes after being hit by a laundry van, Binet launches into an energetic satire that romps through 'the linguistic turn' in 20th century critical theory with key roles being taken by Barthes himself, Foucault, Kristeva et al. Set against the eve of the 1981 French election, this draws together issues of politics, power and language, though giving the whole thing an aura of novelistic farce. The book this reminded me of most was Umberto Eco's Foucault's Pendulum - and Eco himself has a role to play in the section set in Bologna.

There are moments where this had me giggling out loud: the inspired scenes where our dour and linguistically unenlightened police inspector and the graduate student he has coerced into helping him enter a gay bathhouse in pursuit of a suspect: 'in truth, they make a fairly credible couple: the old, beefy, hairy-chested guy, looking around inquisitively, and the skinny, young, clean-shaven one, who glances at his surroundings surreptitiously'. Their encounters with Foucault in flagrante delicto, and Herzog's attempts to find out whether any of the men speak with a southern accent are hysterical.

To be honest, this probably goes on too long and I flagged a bit in the latter sections. You do, also, need to have a working knowledge of critical theory to engage with the story and get some of the jokes (Kristeva doing something as mundane as preparing dinner with the TV on in the background). All the same, a farcical and funny intellectual satire on language and the politicised power embedded in rhetoric.

To be posted on Amazon and Goodreads.