Lovin’ Vian
I’ve just finished reading two books related to the great Boris Vian.
The first is one of his two early novels – Vercoquin and the Plankton – published by the wonderful Wakefield Press (one of my favourite publishers). That only leaves three novels still to come out in an English translation – the other early book Trouble in the Swathes, the last Vernon Sullivan novel They Do Not Realise and his posthumous On n’y échappe pas. There are also some of his plays and his poetry.
The novel has all of the Vian trademarks of extravagant wordplay, extraordinary characters, and casual surrealism although it does not have the heart of his best novels. It feels more like the Vernon Sullivan To Hell With the Ugly than Froth on the Daydream. The translation by Terry Bradford is workmanlike but without the instinctive feel for the material Stanley Chapman had in his work on Froth and Heartsnatcher, however I prefer it to the Paul Knoblotch work for TamTam.
Despite its faults, it is thoroughly recommended to anyone who already loves Vian, and if you are new to this fabulous author, start with Froth.
The other book is Left Bank by Agnes Poirier from Bloomsbury. It is a cultural history of Paris during and immediately after its occupation in World War 2 (which is also the period Vercoquin is set in).
The polymath Vian features heavily in the book alongside his friends Jean Paul Sartre and Simone de Beauvoir. As Paris opened up, Vian was a mainstay of the cultural scene on the Left Bank as not only a writer but jazz musician and impresario and the “Surprise Parties” of Vercoquin evolved into the packed cellars of the past war period the way the Zazous evolved.
Poirier’s book fills a gap in the cultural history of the city between the Surrealist and émigré scene in Montparnasse in the 20s and 30s and the 50s and 60s captured in James Campbell’s Paris Interzone and Barry Miles’ The Beat Hotel and as such I find it invaluable.
Anyone interested in how Paris developed and maintained its role as the centre of literary and artistic life should read these books.
