I've added The Balcony and The Maids to my to-read list, and The Thief's Journal as well, which is I just noticed is Genet's autobiography.

i think genet was speaking of his own experiences regarding gay relationships. of course, we can never really write honestly and outside our own realm of experience; but i agree: to impose your own experience on a larger societal construct is a mistake.

if you are interested in his plays, the balcony and the maids are two that have received a lot of critical acclaim. i produced a staged reading of the screens, which was exhausting (it takes about 4.5 hours to read/perform), and i would refrain from doing it again. for all the work, i'm not sure i got much out of it. i do like the maids and the balcony though.

Phillip, that's exaclty right, I am happy I at least gave this a try because I do want to be a more informed reader. I generaly enjoy transgressive fiction but this just didn't work for me. I'd expected it to, considering the fringes of society characters, but I had huge difficulties relating to the book.

And Gypsy, I also found it rather sad that Genet made such a generalization. It did not seem to fit.

Phillip, thanks for the info on Genet. I haven't read any of Genet's plays yet, but I think I probably will now that I'm a little more familiar with his style of writing. The writing does indeed have great beauty to it, and the dreamlike quality of the prose didn't impede my understanding of the (ghastly) storylines.

Interesting comparison with John Waters' films. So true about both of them depicting lifestyles far beyond what most people could understand. Though I must admit to being more a fan of Hairspray than of Pink Flamingoes, etc.

I think I was somewhat bothered by what seemed to me as Genet's anticipation of society's changing attitudes towards gays. In a time when gay relationships weren't given any legal value, much less societal acceptance, he nonetheless asserts that there can't be real love between homosexuals, and that their unions are flippant, shallow and meaningless. Probably he was familiar with examples of this, but I wonder why he made such generalizations. It was one of the few times in this book that he ventured outside of what was going on in his own head and made a societal comment.

i suggested we check out genet in the context of transgressive fiction, and he certainly fits into the genre. i like his plays, and prefer the name of the rose to our lady of the flowers.

i learned something important about myself while reading sartre's book on genet. he talks about how genet, like many artists, experienced a kind of shattering of reality as a child, and as an artist, used his art to reassemble that broken reality. i realized that at an early age, when my parents told me i was adopted, i began a similar process, so for me this really helped me to understand myself.

back to genet. first off, everything he writes is fiction. his creations and descriptions are works of fiction, not reality. he never murdered anyone. i met a woman in sao paolo (who produced a production on william blake i was working on) and she produced the balcony in the mid-60's and had lots of stories about genet, mainly that he was an chronic liar...it' became easy to see that his work is fiction and he can't help but create these fictions.

i realize he isn't speaking to the kind of life any of us are living, but i like genet for the same reason i like john waters' films (even though their art is very different), but both artists give voice to a depraved consciousness that sits far outside the realm of normal society. i think genet's prose is lyrical, and can be even beautiful despite the subject matter.

sorry you didn't dig his writing, but at least you can say you checked him out and now you have a more informed opinion.

Kathryn and Marvin, I completely relate to your feelings on this book. It was a struggle for me to finish it, and I can see why you left off. I also detested everything Genet wanted to do or had done in his past (especially the reason he claims to have ended up in prison in the first place). I'll admit to knowing little about the life of Genet, other than that in real life he was a criminal and that this book was written while he was in prison, though I'd always understood that he was just a petty thief, not actually a murderer as he describes himself here.

Of course he intends to shock us and sicken us, depending, I guess, on how seriously we were able to take the material. I guess I sort of became indifferent to it after a hundred pages or so, which I think was my coping tactic, and my eyes just slid over it until I reached the end.

One of the worst things for me was that it was not written in a juvenile manner. Though deranged and craven, the voice is clearly that of an adult, so even if/when the narrator becomes unreliable, the voice still bothered me in a way that a teenagery-sounding person wouldn't.

I had the same reaction to the book as Kathryn did.I did not finish it either. I read about 60 pages before giving up. Sartre described this book as a masturbatory fantasy and I think he hit it on the nail. The subject matter wasn't the issue. It was how Genet treated the subject matter. I've read books on the same themes and felt I've learn something or at least gotten into the characters of the book. This just wasn't happening here.

Comments and opinions? I'm sure we have plenty involving this book.

I did not finish it. I tried, more than I normaly would. I did not have a problem with the material, but I did have a problem with the meandering format and attempts to shock the reader. I did not like a single character. I was completely unable to relate. Being able to relate to a character, any character, no matter how much or in what way, is almost a necessaity for me to continue reading a book. I can hate a character but I have to see some small part of myself, what I was, am, or hope to be, and there was nothing in this book to connect me. The writing was beautiful, in parts, but that was not enough. I'm tempted to permanently remove the book from my shelves. Sorry, I know that many readers like this book but it's just not for me. I even recently picked up a used copy of Sartre's Saint Genet but I do not think I will be reading it.

spanks!

Heh. Phillip, that's punny.

it's a steal.....i'm sure genet would approve.

(i'd say "no pun intended", but that's so not true)

I'm in. When I saw it cost only 89 cents for the Kindle, that cinched the deal.

Yay! So, I think that's at least 4 of us so far, since I saw Marvin add the book as well, hint, hint. I'm really looking forward to the discussion!

i'm up for it. i was just browsing it again the other day when we were talking about it. starting it in december works for me as well...

Discussion for Our Lady Of The Flowers by Jean Genet will begin December 1st for anyone interested!