Regine Pernoud

of multiple readings. But the interest shown in the ‘infra-ordinary’ both by Perec and, notably, Sarraute, allowed 404 THE TWENTIETH CENTURY nouveau réalisme to evolve. A number of authors, particularly women (Anne-Marie Garat, b. 1946; Régine Détambel, b. 1960) write of ordinary, anonymous, often interchangeable people at a moment of crisis, unexceptional individuals neutrally observed in hyperrealist detail. Clothes, common objects, routine actions (like rolling a cigarette) furnish a