Alain Robbe-Grillet, The Erasers ****

Robbe-Grillet's experimental fiction works for me in a way that the Oulipo writers' work does not. It's something about his approach, which Wikipedia describes thusly: "Methodical, geometric, and often repetitive descriptions of objects replace (though often reveal) the psychology and interiority of the character."

The Erasers is Robbe-Grillet's first novel. As such, it is more traditional than later novels such as Jealousy. For example, it has a plot. A man travels to a provincial city to investigate the latest in a series of murders. Who is the murderer? What's the motive for the string of murders? Why does the investigator buy several erasers during the day? The novel works as a thriller and as an experimental novel.