Tosh’s Comments (group member since Oct 12, 2007)

Tosh’s comments from the Boris Vian group.

For all you film geeks, no, this is not the "I Spit on Your Grave" that was out in the 70's. But saying that could it be a coincedence that both stories are revenage stories and both take place in the countryside?

A film was made out of this book in 1959. Vian hated the screenplay. In fact he sneaked into a screening of the film and got up during the screrening and said "what is this shit?" and then died of a heart attack right in the screening room.

I have the film, and... It's not too bad!

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 the name of Vernon Sullivan. Vian translated Sullivan's I Spit on Your Graves. The book is about a 'white Negro' who acts out an act of revenge against a small Southern town, in repayment for the death of his brother, who was lynched by an all white mob. Upon its release, I Spit on Your Graves became a bestseller in France, as well as a instruction manual for a copycat killer whose copy of I Spit on Your Graves was found by the murdered body of a prostitute with certain violent passages underlined. A censorship trail also came up where Sullivan as the author was held responsible for the material. It was later disclosed that Vian himself wrote the book and made up the identity of Vernon Sullivan!

This edition is a translation by Vian, that was never published in America. I Spit on Your Graves is an extremely violent sexy 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 America.

More info: www.tamtambooks.com

Boris Vian was a jack of all trades - although unfortunately his name was Boris and "Boris of all trades" never took off as a turn of phrase. But nevertheless Vian was a great songwriter, playwright, singer, jazz critic and, of course novelist so it should have been Boris instead of Jack. Vian's 1947 novel Autumn in Peking (L'Automne à Pékin) is perhaps Vian's most slapstick work, with an added amount of despair in its exotic recipe for a violent cocktail drink.

The story takes place in the imaginary desert called Exopotamie where all the leading characters take part in the building of a train station with tracks that go nowhere. Houses and buildings are destroyed to build this unnecessary structure - and in Vian's world waste not, make not.

In Alistair Rolls' pioneering study of Vian's novels, "The Flight of the Angels," he expresses that Exopotamie is a thinly disguised version of Paris, where after the war the city started changing its previous centuries of architecture to something more modern. Yes, something dull to take the place of what was exciting and mysterious.

Vian, in a mixture of great humor and unequal amount of disgust, introduces various 'eccentric' characters in this 'desert' adventure, such as Anne and Angel who are best friends; and Rochelle who is in love and sleeps with Anne, while Angel is madly in love with her.

Besides the trio there is also Doctor Mangemanche; the archeologist Athanagore Porphyroginite, his aide, Cuivre; and Pipo - all of them in a locality similar to Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland, where there is a tinge of darkness and anything is possible, except for happiness.

More info: www.tamtambooks.com

L'Ecume des jours (Foam of the Daze) is a jazz fueled Science Fiction story that is both romantic and nihilistic! Vian's novel is an assortment of bittersweet romance, absurdity and the frailty of life. Foam of the Daze is a nimble-fingered masterpiece that is both witty and incredibly moving. It is a story of a wealthy young man Colin and the love of his life Chloe, who develops a water lily in her lung.

The supporting cast includes Chick, an obsessive collector of noted philosopher Jean-Sol Partre's books and stained pants, and Nicolas who is a combination of P.G. Wodehouse's fictional butler Jeeves and the Green Hornet's Kato. The soul of the book is about the nature of life disappearing and loving things intensely as if one was making love on a live grenade!

Read more from www.tamtambooks.com

So far, I think for this particular group maybe No. 2. "I Spit on Your Graves is extremely sexual in questionable terms. It's one nasty book. Very Noir! Very insane!

"Foam of the Daze" and "Autumn in Peking" are kind of romantic in an anti-romantic way. It's fantasy but with bitterness. Yet hysterical (at least to me). World wise, Foam of the Daze is the popular Vian title. But I am such a mega-fan of his, I love all his work. I have a serious Vian collection in my office.

What I am going to do is reprint my press releases on each book - and we will go from there.

A little history on this title: Vian was approached by a small publisher at the time (1949) to write an insider's look at the Saint Germain des Prés scene. Right after the war, the location was a magnet for everyone was sick of old culture. Boris Vian is considered to be the Prince of the Saint-Germain des-Prés scene due to his amazing social contacts, the ability to organize events, his ability to be in two or three places at once, and also everyone liked him to the max.

When Vian finished the text, the publisher went under. It wasn't till early 1970, that this book was published. This original edition had numerous flyers from that period as well as photographs of the scene/nightclubs, and the eccentric personalites that haunt the streets and its clubs.

In 2005 I started to put a new package for English readers. Paul Knobloch did the English translation and Rizzoli published the book. Due to budget considerations I could only use one photographer from the original edition. Georges Dudognon, who was a fly in the wall during that time. Fantastic photographer!

Here's my original press release I wrote for the book:

After World War Two, the Parisian neighborhood of Saint-Germain-des-Prés became a Mecca for intellectual life and innovative social thought. This first English translation of French author Boris Vian's "Manual of St-Germain-des-Prés" is a walking tour of the Left Bank cafés, galleries, underground jazz clubs, theatres, and apartment salons that were the center of existentialist and post-surrealistic circles.

Provocateur, novelist, playwright, jazz musician and singer, Boris Vian ran with luminaries including Simone de Beauvoir, Albert Camus, Jean Cocteau, Jean Genet, Alberto Giacometti, Juliette Greco, Raymond Queneau, Jacques Prévert, and Jean-Paul Sartre. "Manual of St-Germain-des-Prés" is a mosaic of their memories and anecdotes, as much as it is a collection of Vian's impressions. 200 sumptuous black-and-white photographs by Georges Dudognon capture the exciting and provocative spirit of post-war Paris.

"Manual of St-Germain-des-Prés" documents the first time legendary African-American jazz musicians rubbed shoulders with French writers, artists, musicians, and intellectuals who wanted to shake the conservative grip and dance. The interactions amongst a cast of characters who lived exuberantly active and diverse lives make for a captivating read, and vividly illustrate the irresistible, anything-is-possible spirit that made the Left Bank the place to be in the 1950s.

The first two books one should buy by Boris Vian are:

1) I Spit on Your Graves

2) Foam of the Daze or Autumn in Peking

The books listed as No. 2 is in my mind are his masterpieces. No 1, "I Spit on Your Graves" has a fascinating history, yet it's really a dark book. Somewhere between Faulkner and Jonathan Swift.

Vian is sort of a combination of glue and magnet that drew all sorts of talent to Paris during the post-war years. We're talking about Juliette Gréco, Jean Cocteau, Duke Ellington, Henri Salvador, Serge Gainsbourg, Miles Davis, Raymond Queneau and of course Simone and her boyfriend Jean Paul Sartre.