The original French novel is
univocalic in the vowel "e"—i.e., the only vowel used is "e", and Monk preserved this constraint, crafting readable English text without using "a", "i", "o", or "u" in the translation. As its misspelled title suggests,
Les Revenentes scrupulously adheres to the constraints Georges Perec imposed upon himself, even at the risk of disregarding some rules of French spelling. In the original French version there is a parallel between the increasing liberties Perec takes with the French language and the fact that the text becomes increasingly licentious, even pornographic. Ian Monk uses the same device in his translation, using only the vowel "e" while escalating linguistic distortions as the narrative becomes progressively more graphic. ==Sequal to La Disparition==