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I Spit on Your Graves

3.75 of 5 stars 3.75 · rating details · 2,035 ratings · 85 reviews

Boris Vian was a novelist, jazz musician, jazz critic, poet, playwright, a friend of Miles Davis, Duke Ellington, Raymond Queneau, Jean Cocteau, Louis Malle, Jean Paul Sartre, and numerous others of forties and fifties Parisian cultural society. He was also a French translator of American hard-boiled crime novels. One of his discoveries was an African-American writer by th...more

Paperback, 177 pages

Published January 1st 1998 by Tamtam Books (first published 1946)

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Jan 24, 2012 Giulia rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Alex di A Clockwork Orange a Lee Anderson gli fa un baffo. E con questo vi ho detto tutto, o quasi.

In questo libro c’è talmente tanto sesso, violenza, sangue, che anche gli amanti più accaniti della così detta “trasgressive fiction” (tra i quali mi annovero anche io), non possono non provare addirittura ribrezzo dinanzi a certe immagini.

Vernon Sullivan (pseudonimo di Boris Vian) racconta la storia di Lee Anderson, nero dalla pelle bianca, che approda a Buckton, dove nessuno lo conosce e dove ha...more Alex di A Clockwork Orange a Lee Anderson gli fa un baffo. E con questo vi ho detto tutto, o quasi.

In questo libro c’è talmente tanto sesso, violenza, sangue, che anche gli amanti più accaniti della così detta “trasgressive fiction” (tra i quali mi annovero anche io), non possono non provare addirittura ribrezzo dinanzi a certe immagini.

Vernon Sullivan (pseudonimo di Boris Vian) racconta la storia di Lee Anderson, nero dalla pelle bianca, che approda a Buckton, dove nessuno lo conosce e dove ha intenzione di portare a termine il suo piano di vendetta nei confronti di quella bianca società “perbenista” e razzista che gli ha rovinato la vita.

Detto ciò, c’è da dire che il libro è stato scritto per scommessa e presentato da Vian come una sua traduzione di un thriller americano censurato negli USA. L’intento alla base è dunque quasi parodico. E, in effetti, ci sono un po’ tutti gli elementi pulp classici del genere americano.

C’è inoltre da dire che, sebbene sia talvolta rivoltante, l’intento non dico sia buono, ma in fondo il messaggio che traspare con evidenza è che il desiderio di vendetta è una malattia davvero dannosa, un veleno che dapprima potrà anche sembrarti dolce, ma che poi alla fine sempre veleno è.

Comunque, sono rimasta abbastanza contrariata riguardo a certe “perle” di ultra-violenza in più che, secondo me, non sono molto funzionali alla storia, (view spoiler) e che, sì, se ne poteva fare a meno perché si sarebbe evitato di pensare di avere tra le mani il libro di uno che sta prendendo in giro un genere, ma poi ci cade con tutte le scarpe e contribuisce ad ampliarne l’orizzonte tematico.

Scritto bene, si legge in poco tempo, ma le immagini resteranno impresse nelle mie retine per sempre. E spero di averne tratto qualcosa di positivo io, che un po’ vendicativa lo sono (niente di macabro, eh! Del tipo che se mi dici che il mio sugo è salato e invece non lo è affatto, la volta dopo te lo faccio sciapo ;-) ).

Leggerò altro di Vian, perché con questo mi ha fatto intravedere il suo talento letterario, quindi ora voglio che mi sveli la sua personalità.
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Jan 14, 2009 Ken rated it 5 of 5 stars

When Jean d’ Halluin first published I Spit On Your Graves in 1946, he was looking for a bestseller to kickstart his new imprint, Editions du Scorpion. Written by an African-American writer named Vernon Sullivan, the book was a visceral, often misogynistic, and (once it gets rolling) violent pulp novel offering a gritty commentary on racial injustice in the United States.

The plot centered on Lee Anderson, a light skinned black man seeking revenge for the murder of his brother at the hands of wh...more

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Apr 06, 2008 Tosh rated it 5 of 5 stars

If "Foam of the Daze" is lightness with bitter sweet taste, than Vian's "I Spit on Your Graves" is a work of pure hate, lust and evil. There are two (or a lot more) sides to Vian's work - and he was also a masterful 'pulp' writer.

For more info on this check out : www.tamtambooks.com

It's kind of creepy to push one's book to the general public, but then again I just paid for it, I didn't write it! Somehow in English Vian slipped into the spaces of time. Whenever the names Camus or Sartre is mentio...more

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Jan 13, 2009 Manny rated it 1 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: french, too-sexy-for-maiden-aunts, trash

I'm afraid I found this book rather revolting. It is meant to be read ironically at some level (at least, it is widely claimed that that's the correct interpretation), but to me it came across more as sadistic pornography. Though the author was, as usual, very inventive. He wrote the book in French, but claimed it was a translation of an American thriller written by a hitherto unknown black author; the book, Vian said, couldn't be published in the US because the story involved a black hero who s...more

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Feb 28, 2010 Jana rated it 3 of 5 stars

So. I don’t know. It’s slightly trashy. Vian is an underdog. He started being recommended and on book fares I see more and more of him. I don’t know. He didn’t really impress me. I spit on your graves was written 60 years ago (but you can’t tell at all if you don’t know the info), and the only thing that this guy Lee Anderson does is: have (graphic) sex with southern teenagers and children, gets drunk and hates. Eventually he does something else as well, but not to spoil the book. There is a rea...more

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Nov 28, 2012 Φαροφύλακας rated it 1 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: Μυθιστορήματα-και-Νουβέλες-Διάφορα

Κλείνοντας την "Άννα Καριένινα" έπιασα το "Θα Φτύσω στους Τάφους σας" (J'Irai Cracher sur vos Tombes) τού Μπορής Βιαν (Boris Vian), ένας από τους κλασικούς τίτλους που ακούω μέσ' στα χρόνια κι είπα να τον διαβάσω. Είναι μια μικρή νουβέλα και την τελείωσα αυθημερόν.

Το βιβλίο γράφτηκε το 1946 με τον Βιαν κρυμμένο πίσω από το ψευδώνυμο Βέρνον Σάλλιβαν (Vernon Sullivan).

Όπως προδιαθέτει κι ο τίτλος πρόκειται για μια ιστορία μίσους. Αφηγητής είναι ο ίδιος ο ήρωας και δεν είμαι σίγουρος πως καταλαβαίν...more Κλείνοντας την "Άννα Καριένινα" έπιασα το "Θα Φτύσω στους Τάφους σας" (J'Irai Cracher sur vos Tombes) τού Μπορής Βιαν (Boris Vian), ένας από τους κλασικούς τίτλους που ακούω μέσ' στα χρόνια κι είπα να τον διαβάσω. Είναι μια μικρή νουβέλα και την τελείωσα αυθημερόν.

Το βιβλίο γράφτηκε το 1946 με τον Βιαν κρυμμένο πίσω από το ψευδώνυμο Βέρνον Σάλλιβαν (Vernon Sullivan).

Όπως προδιαθέτει κι ο τίτλος πρόκειται για μια ιστορία μίσους. Αφηγητής είναι ο ίδιος ο ήρωας και δεν είμαι σίγουρος πως καταλαβαίνω γιατί ο συγγραφέας επέλεξε να αλλάξει αφηγητή στα δύο τελευταία κεφάλαια. Ένας ήρωας που τρέφει μέσα του ένα μίσος ακραίο και αρρωστημένο το οποίο τελικά θα τον οδηγήσει αντίστοιχα σε ακραίες και αρρωστημένες πράξεις.

Δεν μου άρεσε η αφηγηματική τεχνική. Γενικά δεν υπάρχει πουθενά εμβάθυνση στον ψυχισμό ώστε να μπορέσουμε να κατανοήσουμε καλύτερα τις πράξεις των ηρώων και την κλιμάκωση τού πάθους όμως βέβαια ίσως έτσι είναι το στιλ τής συγκεκριμένης λογοτεχνίας κι από την άλλη θα φταίει κι ο νωπός Τολστόης που με καλόμαθε.

Έπειτα δεν με πείθουν οι καταστάσεις όπως π.χ. η ευκολία που κάνουν όλοι σεξ με το "καλησπέρα" όμως και άλλα πιο σημαντικά σημεία. Η ιστορία έχει πολύ σεξ με κάπως ελευθέριες περιγραφές και κατά το τέλος απεχθέστατη βία που προσωπικά με αηδίασε. Κι ίσως είναι αυτά τα δύο στοιχεία, τής ωμής βίας και τού σεξ, που προκάλεσαν αίσθηση εκείνη την εποχή γιατί σήμερα νομίζω πως αυτό το βιβλίο μάλλον θα περνούσε απαρατήρητο. Άλλος σημαντικός άξονας τής ιστορίας είναι το φυλετικό μίσος δίχως να υπάρχει όμως εμβάθυνση πολιτική ή άλλη.

Ο ήρωας, ή μάλλον ο αντιήρωας, είναι ο τύπος που προσωπικά μου προκαλεί αποστροφή και δεν μπορώ να ταυτιστώ μαζί του για περισσότερους από έναν λόγους. Η αμοραλιστική στάση του και οι πράξεις μίσους του με αποστασιοποιούν και με αηδιάζουν κι αυτό σε συνδυασμό με την επιφανειακή εξιστόρηση με έκανε να μην μπορώ να εκτιμήσω αυτό το έργο.

( Πρόκειται για ένα από αυτά τα βιβλία των εκδόσεων Γράμματα που τα πήρα για τρία ευρά έκαστο από το Φεστιβάλ Βιβλίου στην παραλία τής Θεσσαλονίκης. Δεν μπορώ λοιπόν να μην αναφέρω την παντελώς άσχετη εικόνα στο εξώφυλλο όπως το συνηθίζουν άλλωστε οι συγκεκριμένες εκδόσεις. Στον κολοφώνα αναφέρεται τίνος είναι η εικόνα και ποιος έκανε την μακέτα τού εξώφυλλου κι αληθινά αναρωτιέμαι μήπως τελικά είμαι εγώ ο τυφλός που δεν βλέπει την όποια σχέση. )

[ πρώτη δημοσίευση στην Λέσχη του Βιβλίου ](less)

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Dec 27, 2011 Stewart Home rated it 5 of 5 stars

I Spit On Your Graves was a literary hoax which was first published as if it had been written in English by an Afro-American author called Vernon Sullivan and Vian was merely its translator. In fact there was no Vernon Sullivan, the ostensible author of this work was a figment of Vian’s imagination and the book was written in French and only translated into English by the author and Milton Rosenthal after it became a bestselling sensation. The plot of I Spit On Your Graves echoes Richard Wright’...more I Spit On Your Graves was a literary hoax which was first published as if it had been written in English by an Afro-American author called Vernon Sullivan and Vian was merely its translator. In fact there was no Vernon Sullivan, the ostensible author of this work was a figment of Vian’s imagination and the book was written in French and only translated into English by the author and Milton Rosenthal after it became a bestselling sensation. The plot of I Spit On Your Graves echoes Richard Wright’s novel Native Son, although Vian’s book is both more sadistic and self-consciously misanthropic. In Wright’s book the death of a white girl at the hands of an Afro-American is almost accidental, but nonetheless as a direct consequence this victim of racial oppression feels ‘free for the first time in his life’. Vian’s first person narrator Lee Anderson adopts a prose style and worldview heavily influenced by Henry Miller and James M. Cain, thus the book is self-consciously generic not just in its borrowed plot but also in its style. Although Anderson identifies himself as an Afro-American male, he is able to pass as white and revels in seducing privileged southern girls who have no idea that he is black. These sexual conquests are presented as a form of revenge against the white racists who Anderson tells us murdered his darker skinned brother. However, Anderson’s sexual shenanigans are a mere prelude to him slaughtering two white sisters, Lou and Jean Asquith. The twin homicides are coldly planned and self-consciously carried out as an act of revenge against the racist society that has oppressed Anderson and murdered his brother. Given this it seems reasonable to conclude that like the noir novels and films by which it was inspired, Vian’s book is an essentially conservative response to the overdeveloped world’s mid-twentieth century crisis of masculinity. However, while gender theory provides useful tools with which to examine Vian’s book, there are other factors that need to be taken into account. Immediately prior to the narrator Lee Anderson strangling and then shooting Jean Asquith who is pregnant with his baby, the novel is given a particularly nihilistic twist when he asks her: ‘Do you always like it so much when you get laid by a colored man?’ (Page 166).

Read this review in full here: http://www.stewarthomesociety.org/sex...(less)

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Jan 02, 2011 Federiken Masters rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: A cualquier menos a los racistas.

Recommended to Federiken by: Que me gusta cómo canta el autor y Bucletina al prestármelo.

Está difícil puntuar este libro, ya que me pareció muy buena lectura y con un gancho lo suficientemente fuerte como para terminármelo en menos de dos días. Pero mientras más avanzaba la trama, peor me dejaba lo que leía. Se nota que el autor quiso ser crudo y bestial para generar un efecto dramático y antimoralizante mayor, y mierda si lo logra. La novela va cambiando de registro de una manera paulatina pero evidente, lo mismo que el protagonista. Este pasa de ser un perfecto ejemplo de "Magnifi...more Está difícil puntuar este libro, ya que me pareció muy buena lectura y con un gancho lo suficientemente fuerte como para terminármelo en menos de dos días. Pero mientras más avanzaba la trama, peor me dejaba lo que leía. Se nota que el autor quiso ser crudo y bestial para generar un efecto dramático y antimoralizante mayor, y mierda si lo logra. La novela va cambiando de registro de una manera paulatina pero evidente, lo mismo que el protagonista. Este pasa de ser un perfecto ejemplo de "Magnificent bastard" a un sociópata por el cual cuesta mucho sentir algún tipo de aprecio, una especie de antihéroe con mucho más de "anti" que de "héroe". La transición está bastante bien hecha y no sorprende ni parece improvisada porque el personaje aclara desde un principio que todo lo que hace lo hace por venganza, explicita que todo forma parte de un plan mayor; pero mientras me caía bien tenía cierta esperanza de que de algún modo su venganza fuera más justa, mejor dirigida, contra los verdaderos victimarios; que se redimiera de un modo menos violento, que no le diera la razón (aunque parcial) a los racistas, a los retrógrados, a los hiperviolentos.
Claro que todo esto de lo que me quejo como si fuera indecente está presagiado en el mismo prólogo del autor -que no admite ser tal, ya que la novela salió originalmente con seudónimo- y se entiende que no busca ser una novela moralizante sino un cruel retrato de una realidad injusta y de una escalada de violencia sin fin a la vista. Es a la vez un grito de justicia como un ejemplo de la falta de ella.
Si Boris Vian pensaba generar rechazo y compunción es admirable lo bien que lo consiguió, pero a mí como lector me costó seguir disfrutando de la novela a mitad de camino, cuando el hilo conductor deja de ser el sexo y pasa a ser la violencia. A partir de ahí que comencé a padecerla, aunque nunca pensé en abandonarla, a seguirla con un interés más policial (en el sentido que le dan los diarios al término) que social, que cultural, que entretenido. Si esa también era su intención, mejor todavía, otro éxito para Vian. Supongo que el como autor la habrá pasado mejor que sus lectores, sobre todo para la época hipócrita en la que fue escrita. En resumen, una novela que puede resultar genial o desagradable según con qué vara se la mida. Creo que yo traté de usar dos al mismo tiempo y por eso quedó en unas tibias tres estrellas.(less)

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Jun 15, 2010 Troy rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: read-in-2010

I needed some fast noir. I needed some sex and violence and lots of speed (not crystal meth, but good old rapid movement, velocity, acceleration, changing of vectors). Or the representation thereof. And I got it.

We all know Boris Vian was a noir-obsessed French guy (but you might say, "but aren't all French guys noir-obsessed?" and then some surly looking bloke might say, "shut up, you,") and this guy Vian pretended to translate books by an imaginary friend who was also an U.S. American black gu...more

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May 25, 2010 Thecla rated it 2 of 5 stars

hat can I say about the book!!! OMG is a good place to start!! What was all that about??? Where were these peoples parents?

I really wanted to like the characters but hated all of them. Lee was a total twat (even him dying with an erection was a bit OTT). Dexter I liked even less especially on his visits to Anna's (I wanted to really scream at both of them at this point). Those poor girls was all I could think. All the females in this book were portrayed badly and as weak.

The only time I was sy...more

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Jun 24, 2011 Amandine rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Recommended to Amandine by: Pauline

Shelves: abc-recommended-23-26, 20e-et-21e-siècles

2,5 étoiles.

Marathon ABC recommandations (V)

Si une amie ne m'avait pas offert ce livre, il est fort probable que je ne l'aurais pas encore lu à l'heure actuelle et que je serais toujours résolue à ne le lire qu'en dernière extrémité. Ce mauvais a priori me venait essentiellement du titre, trop provocant à mon goût, surtout en sachant l'époque de publication de cette œuvre (moi et le 20e siècle, on est très loin de l'amour-passion).
Finalement, je ne regrette pas de l'avoir enfin lu et découvert....more

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Feb 02, 2011 Ira Bespalova rated it 4 of 5 stars

I ordered this book on the net a few weeks ago. It is pretty extraordinary. It's called " I Spit on Your Graves" by Boris Vian. I've read a dozen of extremely negative feedbacks on this novel but decided to check it out for myself, just for the hell of it. I Spit on Your Graves is an extremely violent hard-boiled novel about racial and class prejudice, revenge, justice, and is itself a literary oddity due to the fact that it was written by a jazz-loving white Frenchman, who had never been to Ame...more

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Feb 24, 2012 knig rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2012

The deep American South in the 1940s as per Boris Vian’s riotous imaginings, condensed in a gripping Kaliforniesque, Bataillesque road trip of fornication and murder. I say imaginings, because its doubtful Vian ever set foot in America, although this of course is not the point.
A highly stylised crime noir, this slim novel packs in every conceivable affront to general morality and human decency. Ostensibly about a black man who has white features going on a calculated rampage to avenge the lynchi...more The deep American South in the 1940s as per Boris Vian’s riotous imaginings, condensed in a gripping Kaliforniesque, Bataillesque road trip of fornication and murder. I say imaginings, because its doubtful Vian ever set foot in America, although this of course is not the point.
A highly stylised crime noir, this slim novel packs in every conceivable affront to general morality and human decency. Ostensibly about a black man who has white features going on a calculated rampage to avenge the lynching of his younger brother, the novel aims to deliver a death blow to the self serving hypocrisy and moral decay of ‘decent’ society. Being able to integrate in white circles, Lee Anderson plots with cold calculation the path to multiple degradation and murders which will presumably tilt the balance of justice in his favour, to make up for the loss of his brother. In a slight deviation from traditional revenge noirs, the intended targets here are not his brothers killers, but just any old whites, as long as they have sufficient standing in the community, so their deaths may make a splash.

And so let the games begin. As each sordid scene unravels and bleeds into the next, it heralds a massive indictment on the hypocrisy, value corruption and decay of every conceivable layer of society: both white and black. I understand this is the end goal but I am still left reeling and disgusted, I’m afraid, from some of the most disturbing scenes I’ve read recently. In particular, the doubtfully consensual sex with two (possibly virginal) ten year old girls, pimped by a decrepit older ‘doyenne’, who embark into the foray without knowing exactly what is going to happen to them, and end up ‘torn’, drugged, and with chunks of flesh bitten off their (budding) breasts left me cold.

No one comes up trumps in this blazing inferno of human greed and desire seeking ever more depraved outlet: it reads like a junkie trip, where each hit needs to be bigger in the perpetual chase of an ever elusive high, until the inevitable denouement.

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Nov 27, 2010 abo rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction

Un piccolo gioiello di letteratura della vendetta.

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Dec 11, 2010 Velma rated it 4 of 5 stars Recommends it for: fans of Dexter & American Psycho

Recommended to Velma by: Tosh

Shelves: permanent-collection, fiction, 2010-reads, noir

Would have only been a 3-star if not for the back-story intrigue; author "fraud" is worth an extra star in my book any day. With boatloads of sex and violence like any good pulp novel, this one also has social commentary on racial and class themes via the protagonist, Lee Anderson, a poor black man "passing" as white in upper-middle class society and perpetrating enough bad deeds to shock a 21st century audience; I would love to read the 1947 reviews! This 3-hour read was enough to entice me to...more

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Oct 04, 2011 Anastasia rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: francia, contemporanei

4.5/5

Mi piace toccare questa copertina, è così liscia. Hmmm.
Ehm, sì, siamo in onda. Coff.

Ho finito ieri a letto questo caro libretto con un bel po' di sonno addosso e una certa enfasi da fine lettura. Ero lì che mi dicevo "no, no, si merita il massimo dei voti, è grandioso". Poi il giorno dopo, in piena lucidità mentale, ho guardato me stessa con sconcertamento. Ma sei scema?! Ma come ha fatto solo a passarti per l'anticamera del cervello?!
Per la serie "dormiamoci sopra".
E' un buon libro, ma r...more

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Jan 22, 2011 Monica Carter rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: international-thrillers

It's not easy to write novel featuring a protagonist as reprehensible as Lee Anderson, but only someone like Boris Vian can do it and do it well. And there aren't many writers like Boris Vian. I have long been a fan of Vian since reading his sci-fi-esque, nihilistic love story Foam of Daze. Vian led me to my current theme because when I thought of thrillers, I thought less of the mainstream formulaic idea of thriller and more of the hardcore, pathological, psychological idea of what the feeling...more It's not easy to write novel featuring a protagonist as reprehensible as Lee Anderson, but only someone like Boris Vian can do it and do it well. And there aren't many writers like Boris Vian. I have long been a fan of Vian since reading his sci-fi-esque, nihilistic love story Foam of Daze. Vian led me to my current theme because when I thought of thrillers, I thought less of the mainstream formulaic idea of thriller and more of the hardcore, pathological, psychological idea of what the feeling of 'thrilling' is. I wanted to go a little deeper, challenge the current genre connotation of thriller. I only realized this is what I wanted to do after I read his remarkable I Spit on Your Graves. If you want a happy, police procedural, you will need to look elsewhere. Vian is a gritty mix of de Sade and Jim Thompson with a twist of noir pulp.

This book is deceptive in that it reads like a five and dime thriller. Vian's quick with atmosphere and description, a no frills package. The meat of the novel is the cutting social commentary on racism in America and the story around the book. Vian gives us Lee Anderson, a black man who passes for white, as the symbolic protagonist. He has blond hair and light skin which makes it easy for him to slip into a small Southern town, posing as a white man who works in a bookstore. Anderson does this so that he can avenge the murder of his darker skinned brother by white men. Once he assimilates into small town life, he begins to bed every pubescent girl he can find. The sex is as cursory as the violence. He ingratiates himself a group of teens with his guitar playing skills, his friendly demeanor and his ability to legally and willingly buy liquor. The narrative is done so well that it when Lee objectifies those around him, the reader still wants to keep reading about Lee. When Lee attends a party given by a rich friend t hat he has made, Lee simultaneously looks at them with disdain and empathy:

As soon as I was in Dexter's house, I understood why they'd specified evening dress: our bunch was lost in a majority of "better class" people. I recognized some of them at once: the doctor, the preacher and others of the same type. A colored servant took my hat, and I noticed a couple of others. Then Dexter took me by the arm to introduce me to his parents. I learned that it was his birthday. His mother looked like him: a little, skinny, dark-haired woman, with muddy eyes, and his father was the sort of man you feel like smothering with a pillow, they have such a superior air about them. B.J., Judy, Jicky and the others, all dressed up in evening dresses, were acting very properly. I couldn't keep from thinking of their boxes when I saw them ceremoniously drink their cocktails and accept invitations of some serious looking characters in cheaters who asked them to dance. From time to time we gave each other a wink to keep our spirits up. It was pretty miserable.

It is as if Vian chose to write in a reductive style to enhance the voice of the character and disguise any hint of societal commentary. Ultimately, Lee's aim is to bed the two richest, prettiest sisters in town and kill them. The reader knows you should hate him, but Vian makes this quest so compulsively readable one can't turn away:

With Bill, with Dick, and with Judy, I'd already gotten several points up on them. But I didn't think it worth while telling them a "nigger" had taken them--I wouldn't get what I really wanted that way. I'd have my revenge on Moran and on every last one of them when I'd done Lou and Jean Asquith. Two at a clip, and they wouldn't get me like they did my brother.

I Spit on Your Graves is a masterful piece of work that does thrill, giving you the the perspective of a first-person misogynist, murdering black man through his own eyes. What's equally compelling is how this book came into being. Editions du Scorpions, a french publishing house, was looking for an American-noir type of book to be a bestseller for him. Enter Vian. Vian submits a novel by a black American, Vernon Sullivan, as a translation of an American noir thriller. In reality, Vian wrote the book himself. Vian managed to successfully capture the essence of an American thriller writer, who just happened to be black, even though Vian was white and had never been to America. And, of course, because of its content, it was challenged by censorship. Even more gruesome, a copy of the book was discovered at a murder scene in Paris when a man killed his mistress the same way Lee had perpetrated one of his victims.

In a way, this work resembles performance art. A writer posing as another writer that doesn't exist, writing about a character who poses as a man of another color to commit murder. This a disturbing work that mystifies because it captures American racial injustice in a way that hadn't been done at the time. Reading Vian is a thrill for the history of the book itself and for the idea of what being an author can mean.

I Spit on Your Graves
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Jan 07, 2011 Bucletina rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Es un sopapo directo a la cara. La más pura y cruda realidad. Ni mensajes alentadores, ni víctimas bondadosas. Ninguna intención de lograr que el texto deje alguna moraleja o constituya un relato moralizante. Refleja los esperables efectos que producen tantos siglos de opresión, dolor, torturas y humillaciones. Es horrendo, cruel, terriblemente violento, asqueroso. Es imposible identificarse con los actos de su protagonista. ¿Realmente lo es? No sé, igual no creo que sea la intención de su autor...more

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Mar 18, 2009 Andy rated it 3 of 5 stars

I love Foam of the Daze and Heartsnatcher, but this was OK. It was a great, riveting read, but I like Vian better when he explodes genre instead of straining its structures as he does here. I'm sure this has been commented on before, but what went wrong in this edition? It had more typing, formatting, and spelling errors than a blog entry. Almost every other page had something wrong with it. Rarely does sort of thing reach the level of distraction I found in this edition.

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Aug 25, 2010 Melody rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: murder

A fitting book to read on the tail of Native Son. The stories take place in about the same time and deal with the subject of an angry black man spiraling down to a hopeless end. In I Spit on Your Graves, however our young man is "passing as white"; knowing that if the people he was hanging out with, drinking with, having sex with, knew that he had the slightest smidgen of black blood, his life would be in danger. His brother was murdered for loving a white girl and now he is out to revenge his b...more

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Aug 14, 2009 anne rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: not-for-the-faint-of-heart, borrowed

Je comprends le parallele entre J'irai cracher et American Psycho, si ce n'est que J'irai cracher a une portee politique peut-etre plus evidente.
Cela etant... autant j'ai adore L'Arrache-coeur, autant la, j'ai plus de mal. J'ai aime, c'est sur. Le style, l'histoire, la langue... mais disons que certains passages sont un peu plus durs a lire que d'autres.

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Oct 06, 2012 Laurent rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: french-francais, favorites

Un chef d'oeuvre de la litterature, pourtant ecrit en 15 jours. Quand je lisais, je sentais la folie, la violence et le desir sexuel du personnage principal. Je pensais vraiment vivre cette histoire et je sentais la haine entre ces personnages. Un recit court mais qui vous marque pour tres longtemps.

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Sep 22, 2011 Jeremy rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2011

Really bizarre premise here, a Frenchman wrote this in the 30's and claimed it was written by an African-American who had his brother lynched. It was published to a storm of controversy for good reason, because it is super racist.

Giant boner conclusion earns a half star. Not mine, the protagonist...

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Apr 03, 2010 Walter Proof rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: roman

Parodie de roman noir américain, écrite en moins d'une semaine, signée sous le pseudonyme de Vernon Sullivan, prise très au sérieux à l'époque de sa parution, à tel point qu'elle conduira Boris Vian jusqu'au tribunal.
Je possède une édition originale de ce Vernon Sullivan, aux Editions de Minuit.

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Mar 02, 2012 Jacqueline rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Wow, c'est puissant comme truc ! Une histoire haletante dont les éléments se mettent en place progressivement jusqu'à l'issue finale. Presque une course contre la montre où la tension monte à chaque chapitre. Du sexe, de l'alcool, des grosses voitures, de la violence... Je ne savais pas trop à quoi m'attendre en commençant ce livre mais je n'ai pas été déçue du voyage.

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Oct 14, 2012 Varol Aksoy rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Boris Vian üslup olarak o ilham verici hayal dünyası, imgeleri, renkli bakışı bu kitapta Günlerin Köpüğü kadar ön plana çıkmış değil. Yine de intikam duygusunu, ırkçılığa karşı sert cevabı gayet net ve sürükleyici bir şekilde anlatıyor. Duruma göre tavsiye edilesi kitap. :)

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May 28, 2012 Julia rated it 3 of 5 stars

Una de las novelas con menos escrúpulos y más extrañas que he leido en mucho tiempo. Muy interesante si se tiene en cuenta el contexto en que fue escrita, pero no apta para gente sensible...puede resultar hiriente y desagradable con descripciones muy violentas y sexuales.

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Feb 18, 2012 Vivi rated it 5 of 5 stars

Je n'ai lu ce livre qu'une fois, certainement parce qu'il a fait une impression trop forte sur moi pour que j'ose le relire. Mais chaque chose viendra en son temps.
Je me rappelle que je l'ai finis en une nuit probablement parce que l'idée d'aller me coucher sans connaître la fin de l'histoire me faisait trop peur.
C'est l'un des livres qui a eu le plus d'impact sur moi, mais je crois que je n'avais que 15 ans que je l'ai lu... J'ai été à la fois dégoûtée et fascinée. Avec le recul, je peux voir...more

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Mar 25, 2012 Marina Nova rated it 3 of 5 stars

Без съмнение една от най-тежките книги, които съм чела.. Оставам със смесени чувства. Но определено не може да се отрече майсторството.

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Jul 29, 2011 Mathieu rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Un roman noir (ah ah !) pour parler de la ségrégation des noirs aux USA. Le récit est brut, sans artifices, et ne fait pas dans le détail.

Le héros, sans scrupules, est néanmoins attachant, et c'est ce qui, au final, est dérangeant. Ce livre au final amer est vraiment poignant. Du très bon.

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About Boris Vian

Boris Vian was a French polymath: writer, poet, musician, singer, translator, critic, actor, inventor and engineer. He is best remembered for novels such as L’Écume des jours and L'Arrache-cœur (translated into English as Froth on the Daydream and Heartsnatcher, respectively). He is also known for highly controversial "criminal" fiction released under the pseudonym Vernon Sullivan and some of his...more

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