Saint Glinglin: précédé d'une nouvelle version de Gueule de Pierre et des Temps mêlés: Roman (Saint Glinglin: Preceded by a New Version of Stone Mouth and Mingled Time)

Raymond Queneau’s novel Saint Glinglin is a composite work of seven sections. The title refers to a common French phrase “à la Saint Glinglin,” or “on Saint Glinglin’s Day,” a fictional holiday. Reminiscent of the adage “when pigs fly,” the phrase is meant to denote a distant, unachievable future. Queneau drew upon this fantastical folklore and created a world with its own made-up logic that keeps the reader amused and alert. A few examples of Queneau’s whimsical plot include the existence of an actual Saint Glinglin’s day, strict delineations of when and how rain falls, and the divinity of fish.

Mary Reynolds’s book binding draws from Queneau’s playful story. Encircling a green leather cover is a goatskin band printed with the book’s title and author, as well as a shard of a smashed porcelain teacup bound to the spine. The teacup fragment refers to a scene in Queneau’s story in which the mayor of the town holds a ritual that involves smashing earthenware.

Endpapers of a hypnotic and colorful design act as an elegant punctuation to the binding, and bring together Reynolds’s craftsmanship with Queneau’s experimental prose.