Bad Eminence

by James Greer

Meet Vanessa Salomon, a privileged and misanthropic French-American translator hailing from a wealthy Parisian family. Her twin sister is a famous movie star, which Vanessa resents deeply and daily. The only man Vanessa ever loved recently killed himself by jumping off the roof of her building. It’s a full life.

Vanessa has just started working on an English translation of a titillating, experimental thriller by a dead author when she’s offered a more prominent gig: translating the latest book by an Extremely Famous French Writer who is not in any way based on Michel Houellebecq. As soon as she agrees to meet this writer, however, her other, more obscure project begins to fight back―leading Vanessa down into a literary hell of traps and con games and sadism and doppelgangers and mystic visions and strange assignations and, finally, the secret of life itself.

Peppered with “sponsored content” providing cocktail recipes utilizing a brand of liquor imported by the film director Steven Soderbergh, and with a cameo from the actress Juno Temple, Bad Eminence is at once an old-school literary satire in the mode of Vladimir Nabokov as well as a jolly thumb in the eyes of contemporary screen-life and digital celebrity.

Genres: Fiction, Contemporary, Literary Fiction, Adult Fiction, Adult, Novels, Audiobook

289 pages, Hardcover

First published July 5, 2022

About the author

James Greer is a novelist, screenwriter, musician and critic. He was born in Portland, ME on April 23 1971. As a screenwriter, he's written UNSANE (directed by Steven Soderbergh, starring Clare Foy and Juno Temple) and many other films and TV series. As a novelist, he's written BAD EMINENCE, THE FAILURE, and ARTIFICIAL LIGHT. He's also written books about R.E.M. and Guided By Voices (a band for which he played bass guitar in the mid-90s), the short fiction collection EVERYTHING FLOWS, and was Senior Editor of SPIN Magazine in its early 90s heyday. He lives in Los Angeles.

Reviews

[WURLD]

had to dnf. i love it when narrators are a little annoying or even downright insufferable but it only works well when it’s a decent plot. but the plot was BORRRIIIINNNNGGGGG!!!!!!!!! it has such a good premise but the execution was so lackluster to me

[James Kinsley · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really enjoyed this, even the bits I hated and/or found tedious.
Interestingly, much of what I loved about it is exactly what a lot of people seem to have hated about it. It's a self-indulgent, self-important pretentious bastard of a book, but done right, those can often be the most fun. And this has been done right.

[Amélie · Rating 1 out of 5]

I think the narrator herself says it best: "metatextual bores me, tbh"

Actually should have loved this book, from what it promised, but it was just badly executed.

The French larping was well done, though.

[Leilaniiii]

😏😏😏 pretentious you say?
Weird corruption you say?
FUNNY CONTENT???

SIGN ME TF UP✊

[ink · Rating 3 out of 5]

oh okay

[Charlie Van Koevorden · Rating 2 out of 5]

I really did not like this. It was promised to be, to quote the blurb, “an old-school literary satire in the mode of Vladimir Nabokov as well as a jolly thumb in the eyes of contemporary screen-life and digital celebrity”, but I just didn’t get that from the book.
The main character’s voice becomes tedious to listen to very quickly, the plot picks up quite slowly, the frame of the narrative isn’t particularly interesting or related to the inner story, and the only resolve provided is hardly that, told through the lens of the narrator’s mania rather than given any outside perspective.
The resolve itself doesn’t really satisfy, though I assume that’s not the point in the first place, and I couldn’t understand why characters turn out not to be who you were made to think they are, or to not exist at all. The elements that are supposed to cut through the story, in the form of cocktail recipes and “sponsored content”, become quite trite quite quickly.
Essentially, it felt like being taken on a trip to somewhere I didn’t particularly want to go, with a travel companion I didn’t particularly want to get to know better.

[Robert Wechsler · Rating 4 out of 5]

Oddly, the greatest compliment I can give this novel is that its first-person narrator is far less tiresome than she would have been in a lesser writer’s hands. This is because the narrator is half the game in this comedy, the other half being the game itself, all the play with literary and other references, genres, etc. The narrator’s voice is annoying, but it feels like just the right arch, self-indulgent, self-everything voice for this play (active noun, not alternative word for “drama”). Like many works, and way too many films, this novel becomes trying only when the plot tempo increases toward the end. An excellent literary entertainment for a couple of nice summer days.

[Aron · Rating 1 out of 5]

This is the second book that I read in my And Other Stories subscription, which was written by a US writer. They both were terrible. Both books suffered from the same flaw. They were terribly boring. The protagonists’ lives were not worthy of interest. It seems, US people are so narcissistic and full of themselves, they have nothing truly interesting to say, no real insights to share, about the world and humanity. Perhaps this is why mass shooting is an epidemic in the US. Mass shootings are just another form of narcissism.

It’s not surprising both books end with (spoiler alert) suicides. The authors obviously hate their protagonists as much as I did. it’s the logical next step.

Perhaps the author felt his readers (whom he insults quite often) would enjoy feeling “smart” because they “got” some obscure literary reference he manages to fit in, to every other sentence. Boring. If you enjoy obscure literary references, read masters like Eco or Borges.

Remind me not to bother reading contemporary literary fiction written by young US writers in the future.

[Polly · Rating 4 out of 5]

Absurd, funny and confusing. Featuring cocktail recipes, photographs of swans, and the meaning of life.

[agnesmannbrink · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5. Vad hände ens i handlingen och blev tydligen ovillig värvad till en cult bara av att läsa boken. Är förvirrad vilket brukar vara något jag gillar med böcker, men hatade alltså H A T A D E huvudkaraktären hon gav mig huvudvärk och den totala förvirringen drog ner betyget

[Phil T · Rating 4 out of 5]

i love words but the only one i can think of to accurately review this book is cunt (colloquially). its cunty okay how else can i explain it ! here are some highlights of words i had to google while reading:

acerbically
sourly; bitterly. In a sarcastic or cynical manner.
perspicacity
the quality of having a ready insight into things; shrewdness
heteroclite
abnormal or irregular.
peripatetic
traveling from place to place, in particular working or based in various places for relatively short periods.

[Camille · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was brilliant
This was somewhat predictable
This was so close to home
This felt dragged on many chapters
This is genius within the format

I loved it but don’t know how many many pretentious, bilingual, literature inclined, self-absorbed, self aware people I could recommend it too.

Here’s a picture of a swan :

[Paul · Rating 2 out of 5]

To the copywriter who said on the jacket this was ‘in the mode of Vladimir Nabokov’: Senator, I served with Vladimir Nabokov. I knew Vladimir Nabokov. Vladimir Nabokov was a friend of mine. Senator, you're no Vladimir Nabokov.

[Vanessa Fernandez · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved reading this book. I love the narrative voice, the twists and turns, the denouement … makes me want to read a bunch of French lit and then re-read it again.

[Martin Koerner · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fuck.

[Alicja Chryscienko · Rating 5 out of 5]

i want to give this 5 stars so i will, and im not gonna overthink it
everything i wanted out of a book at the moment

[Julia Hahn · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book made me feel so stupid. And I’m not the dullest tool in the shed.

The vocabulary in this book requires a dictionary—I’m really not sure if that’s the point because the main character, Vanessa, admits that she purposely uses antiquated or rarely used words to make her seem smarter than she is—so does that mean that the author used those words on purpose? The first chapter in the book talks about translation and honestly it read like a text book and I had no idea who anyone or any of the books were. It did get a bit better when Vanessa talked about her life, but it wasn’t long until she was talking about something that I really couldn’t care less about. For those parts I felt my eyes glaze over and wonder what it has to do with the story. Halfway through I still had no clear idea where the story was heading.

[Caitlin · Rating 4 out of 5]

I don't know how he did it, but James Greer has written the second or third-best Otessa Moshfegh novel.

Minus one star for using not one but TWO of my absolute least favorite concluding tropes.

[Zet · Rating 1 out of 5]

Discovered this from booktok.

Needless to say I won't be picking up titles from that app anymore.

[Lorraine · Rating 2 out of 5]

received this as an advanced reader's copy from Early Reviewer's on LibraryThing website.

The brief description of this title sparked enough interest to choose it for an advanced read. I'll start with the positive . . .

The writing style and format of the book made for an easy read - sort of. Quick chapters, if you call them that, are great when you are trying to finish a book. While I'm one to appreciate and prefer detailed writing it's also refreshing to read a book that doesn't mince words. I enjoyed referring to my dictionary a few times to learn some new vocabulary. Being a Juno Temple fan I loved that she showed up as a character in this book.

Now on to the negative . . . the timeline and flow of the story felt blurred and unfocused throughout the book which leaves you disconnected. The main character Vanessa was deplorable in every sense of the word. Every single thing out of her mouth was cynical and irreverent.

Sometimes I need to get out of my comfort zone and read something different only to go right back to where I'm comfortable.

[Steven H · Rating 3 out of 5]

Gave it an extra star because the main character (V) was a force to be reckoned with and very likeable, even though she hated everything. She is a bitter woman, who cut all contact with her twin (A) because her twin stole her life, or at least the life that she had planned out for herself. There are a couple chapters, which seemed like the author used to air his grievances or ideas that he had floating around. Lots of references to french books, which seemed to impress the author and almost seemed to reference them to show how intelligent he was. Interesting concepts including V's occupation of translating books from french to english. How translating is more than changing the words or using a translation service. It's also the overall tone of the book, that you need to keep in mind, how do you convey the authors intent, to bring out the same emotions you would feel if you were reading it in the original language. Overall, left me feeling frustrated at the end, and if that was the authors intent, well done!

[Lisa · Rating 2 out of 5]

The main character narrating this book is a true narcissistic a- -hole. And very entertaining. I know people like this. Sometimes I am people like this. And both annoy me. So the book started off in a way i thought I’d grow into and enjoy. After all a bit of contradictory gradiose self adoration can be fun to laugh at from the reader perspective. And it is. But then the writer takes the reader on a runaway train ride where things get a bit out of control and ridiculous. We lose our fun narrator who becomes more serene but doesn’t change. But then the whole thing its not real anyway. Me, the reader: “ummm, what?” Im all for breaking literary rules in form and structure but to make an otherwise intelligent sort of satire become silly nonsense is unfortunate. Parts if this book (before the not-H, H1, H2 bits), were raucously fun. But then it got out of control and went over a cliff. This one just was too disjointed for me.

[Charlie · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you write a negative review of a book and the first line in your review is about the narrator/main character being narcissistic or unpleasant, you deserve a swirlie.

James Greer's Bad Eminence is a quite engaging and wry story of the prickliest of translators delivering a story to Juno Temple of how they got enmeshed in a conspiracy by someone who totally isn't Michel Houellebecq who enlists her to translate his new novel before he writes it, with about 15 other wild things happening after that. It's right on the edge of falling down some alt-fiction rabbitholes (sending up famous people, shit happening just to happen, outre humor, bad psychologies) but Greer has a really great sense of his main character's narrative voice in a way that makes her feel like a separate creation from the author.

[Kayla Romanelli · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ten books into the new year, I’ve broken my streak of books written by women with James Greer’s Bad Eminence, and what a worthy book it was. This is a self-indulgent, self-important, pretentious tale of doubles told by the most likable UNlikable narrator I’ve ever read — unreliable, narcissistic, a self-described c*nt with a “bitch twin sister.” I enjoyed this woman so much, I couldn’t believe she was written by a man. I did have to Google a word (or two, or three) on nearly every page, which scratched the logophile’s itch in my brain, but if you’re looking for an easy read, then this probably isn’t the book for you. My only complaint was the end’s scattered, unfortunate descent into madness, in which the author seems to lose his grip and the reader the voice of the book’s best quality: its narrator. Else, it may have been a 5-star read for me.

[Marloes · Rating 2 out of 5]

I was doubting between giving this book two or three stars, because at one point, I was curious to see how it continued. However, this curiosity was shortlived as this novel constantly pulled me out of the story by mixing in boring chapters containing philosophical mumbling that seemed to be irrelevant to the story. Most likely, each pretentious word written had some underlying meaning, but I’m simply not interested enough to find out. Would not recommend this book and most definitely not to people who struggle with mental illness. Jesus, this book needs a trigger warning for derealization and depersonalisation.

[Lucy · Rating 3 out of 5]

What a mind fuck.

I loved how short the chapters were, but I feel like I spent half the time looking words up online. Is it Vanessa, is it violet? Is there an h1 or h2 at all? Is there a twin? Was there ever a book deal?

I’ve never read a book with this sassy and crude as a narrator, I felt like I was reading it super fast without emotion… because that’s how Vanessa/violet came across. So many unanswered questions… but maybe that’s a good thing? It was definitely a unique read! It had my mind bouncing all over

I’d love to see Greer’s initial pitch for this book

Am I sending a letter to a publisher to ask them for LSD?

I don’t think I want to be in a cult?

I’m very confused.

[HighPrairieBookworm - Jonni Jones · Rating 3 out of 5]

Vanessa (Van for short) translates books for a living. She’s one of the best which makes her work in demand so she can have her pick of works to translate.

When her agent contacts her about an unusual commission Van meets with the author of the work who explains that he wants her to translate his book before it’s even written.

Vanessa tells her story to the actor Juno Temple while sipping drinks in Van’s apartment. Her story is one of deception, mistaken identity, and outright absurdity.

This is a wild ride.

[Kat · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a wildly ambitious, fantastic romp - the ultimate "mille-feuille" of novels, with untold layers and pop culture references plus an exquisitely rendered misanthropic "unlikeable" female narrator that made me forget the book was in fact written by a man. Definitely a "not for everyone" type of book but it most certainly was exactly for me. Oh, and who says #booktok only recommends the same crap over and over again - I found out about Bad Eminence there and I'm so glad I did (thanks to @bigbooklady).

[Hailey Davidson · Rating 1 out of 5]

This felt like cracking open a man’s skull like an egg, just to fish out his most horrible manic pixie dream girl fantasy.
The writing style was interesting for about two seconds, until it started to feel like a combination textbook, picture book, and recipe book. A swirly drawing titled “An illustration of the meaning of life” is a full chapter in this book. This man’s ego was inflated to the point where he felt he could write that down in a published work and people would think he was a genius.

[Lilly GG · Rating 3 out of 5]

I don’t know how to feel…. I rlly love how this is written, had me laughing and enthralled at times, but overall I fear I was underwhelmed. I echo what others have said, there was so much potential with the style of writing and wholly unreliable (?) narrator, but the plot was too boring for my taste. Book should’ve been much longer, or the lead-up should’ve been much shorter, everything happened far too fast. Loved the Hilma Af Klint quote “Who was Hilma Af Klint? A pawnshop ghost inside a garbage can” (pardon my use of quotation marks, I know Vanessa (violet?) would think they’re excessive).