Is it real, or does it matter?, 23 Jan 2007
This is one of a very small handful of books with a glossary and notes section at the back that actually makes the book even more of a pleasure to read.
With some of the most startling imagery and, as the forward suggests, if a word doesn't exists then Vian makes one up - it will delight and enthrall you throughout.
I had no preconceptions about Boris Vian although my knowledge of French 20th C lit. is very limited.
I thoroughly recommend this book - it is heartwarming without ever being sentimental, clever without being pompous, and funny without being patronising (although I am sure some of the humour is lost in translation - hence the exhaustive notes).

Plant a tree, raise a child, read this book, 23 Feb 2005
A symphony of love, dream, music, imagination.
I haven't seen life the same way since I read this book. It makes new eyes grow, take my word for it. Or better, don't. Read it.
You don't know what magic is until you finish this masterpiece.

Is it real, or does it matter?, 23 Jan 2007
This is one of a very small handful of books with a glossary and notes section at the back that actually makes the book even more of a pleasure to read.
With some of the most startling imagery and, as the forward suggests, if a word doesn't exists then Vian makes one up - it will delight and enthrall you throughout.
I had no preconceptions about Boris Vian although my knowledge of French 20th C lit. is very limited.
I thoroughly recommend this book - it is heartwarming without ever being sentimental, clever without being pompous, and funny without being patronising (although I am sure some of the humour is lost in translation - hence the exhaustive notes).

Plant a tree, raise a child, read this book, 23 Feb 2005
A symphony of love, dream, music, imagination.
I haven't seen life the same way since I read this book. It makes new eyes grow, take my word for it. Or better, don't. Read it.
You don't know what magic is until you finish this masterpiece.

The best Boris Vian ever, 23 Feb 2005
If you have never read Boris Vian, this should be your first one. In it you will find all the ingredients that made him an icon of world litterature. A spoonfull of humor, an acid society critic, and in the end, a great love lesson.

"Somebody perfectly free has no urge to do anything at all.", 07 Jan 2004
In descriptions so richly imagined that he sometimes has to invent new words, Boris Vian brings to life the strange world discovered by a wandering traveler, Timortis, a psychiatrist who has been born an adult and has no memories of his own. An "empty vessel," he believes that if he can learn everything there is to know about someone through psychoanalysis, he can bring about a transferrence of identity and make his own life more complete. When he hears the cries of Clementine, a village woman giving birth to triplets, he stops to give aid and ends up delivering her sons--Noel, Joel, and Alfa Romeo.

Though the birthing scene is humorous, the full satirical flavor and the allegorical construction of this novel do not unfold until Timortis travels into the village. There he discovers that he has arrived just in time for the Old Folks Fair, at which old people are auctioned off like cattle and treated like them. Later Timortis visits a shop where he sees a child being worked to the verge of death, then revived with icewater. Farm animals, however, are given days off when they behave themselves and allowed to hitchhike if they need rides. A scapegoat, named Glory Hallelujah, retrieves putrid, decaying things from a blood-red stream with his teeth, his job being to "swallow the shame of the whole village." The vicar announces that "God is not utilitarian. God is a birthday present...a luxury, a tasseled cushion made of beaten gold." A horse is crucified for his sexual depravity. Additional bizarre episodes abound, leaving the reader to ponder the meaning of the non-stop action, at the same time that s/he is whisked along by the speed of Vian's prose to new and still more surprising events.

Puns, word play, and literary inventions fill the novel, even as Vian's often lyrical sentences and vibrant descriptions set the scenes. Satirizing the existing world for some of its most obvious faults, Vian presents a remarkably open-ended allegory, which makes the reader think at the same time that s/he often laughs at the absurdities and winces at the truths. But this is no full-blown alternative universe created to illustrate a serious and specific political or social agenda. Here Vian symbolically smiles at the reader as he leads Timortis through this strange community from episode to episode, illustrating his own opinions in a more or less random way, having fun all the time, while making some serious points. Not scholarly, though highly literate, this is a book for which one must buckle up, sit back, and just enjoy the ride. Mary Whipple

Is it real, or does it matter?, 23 Jan 2007
This is one of a very small handful of books with a glossary and notes section at the back that actually makes the book even more of a pleasure to read.
With some of the most startling imagery and, as the forward suggests, if a word doesn't exists then Vian makes one up - it will delight and enthrall you throughout.
I had no preconceptions about Boris Vian although my knowledge of French 20th C lit. is very limited.
I thoroughly recommend this book - it is heartwarming without ever being sentimental, clever without being pompous, and funny without being patronising (although I am sure some of the humour is lost in translation - hence the exhaustive notes).

Plant a tree, raise a child, read this book, 23 Feb 2005
A symphony of love, dream, music, imagination.
I haven't seen life the same way since I read this book. It makes new eyes grow, take my word for it. Or better, don't. Read it.
You don't know what magic is until you finish this masterpiece.

The best Boris Vian ever, 23 Feb 2005
If you have never read Boris Vian, this should be your first one. In it you will find all the ingredients that made him an icon of world litterature. A spoonfull of humor, an acid society critic, and in the end, a great love lesson.

"Somebody perfectly free has no urge to do anything at all.", 07 Jan 2004
In descriptions so richly imagined that he sometimes has to invent new words, Boris Vian brings to life the strange world discovered by a wandering traveler, Timortis, a psychiatrist who has been born an adult and has no memories of his own. An "empty vessel," he believes that if he can learn everything there is to know about someone through psychoanalysis, he can bring about a transferrence of identity and make his own life more complete. When he hears the cries of Clementine, a village woman giving birth to triplets, he stops to give aid and ends up delivering her sons--Noel, Joel, and Alfa Romeo.

Though the birthing scene is humorous, the full satirical flavor and the allegorical construction of this novel do not unfold until Timortis travels into the village. There he discovers that he has arrived just in time for the Old Folks Fair, at which old people are auctioned off like cattle and treated like them. Later Timortis visits a shop where he sees a child being worked to the verge of death, then revived with icewater. Farm animals, however, are given days off when they behave themselves and allowed to hitchhike if they need rides. A scapegoat, named Glory Hallelujah, retrieves putrid, decaying things from a blood-red stream with his teeth, his job being to "swallow the shame of the whole village." The vicar announces that "God is not utilitarian. God is a birthday present...a luxury, a tasseled cushion made of beaten gold." A horse is crucified for his sexual depravity. Additional bizarre episodes abound, leaving the reader to ponder the meaning of the non-stop action, at the same time that s/he is whisked along by the speed of Vian's prose to new and still more surprising events.

Puns, word play, and literary inventions fill the novel, even as Vian's often lyrical sentences and vibrant descriptions set the scenes. Satirizing the existing world for some of its most obvious faults, Vian presents a remarkably open-ended allegory, which makes the reader think at the same time that s/he often laughs at the absurdities and winces at the truths. But this is no full-blown alternative universe created to illustrate a serious and specific political or social agenda. Here Vian symbolically smiles at the reader as he leads Timortis through this strange community from episode to episode, illustrating his own opinions in a more or less random way, having fun all the time, while making some serious points. Not scholarly, though highly literate, this is a book for which one must buckle up, sit back, and just enjoy the ride. Mary Whipple

Depends on being a Boris fan, 15 Mar 2006
A rather esoteric book, that only those interested in Boris Vian or the Saint Germain Des Pres scene will like. Anyone else will be nonplussed by it. A historical document lovingly rendered into a handsome English language version. A warning about Vian is his love of bad puns, which may have worked better in French, in the 1950's. Dated but delightful. Vian is surprisingly well translated in English, considering the small audience he must attract, I'd recommend starting with his novels and short stories before buying this book. One for the converted I think. Search for other 'pataphysical works. Raymond Queneau to The London Institute of 'Pataphysics (Atlas Press), the originator: Alfred Jarry. This will lead to well known names of Oulipo members like Georges Perec, Calvino, Harry Mathews and lesser known people (to an english audience) like Leris, Butor, Roubaud, Benabou, Arrabal, Cortazar and so on... If you liked Vians I Spit on Your Grave, don't bother with the movie, but look at the books it parodied, the best works by Jim Thompson (later 'homages' to pulp include the magnificent James Ellroy and David Peace novels). If you like Vians other works, perhaps look at some of the surrealist and related texts by people like Rene Daumal, Breton (UGH), Raymond Roussel (an acquired taste), Cendrars,Soupault. Living authors not French or Surrealist that may appeal are Richard Beard (English), Gilbert Sorrentino (USA), or Virgilio Pinera (Cuban).

Is it real, or does it matter?, 23 Jan 2007
This is one of a very small handful of books with a glossary and notes section at the back that actually makes the book even more of a pleasure to read.
With some of the most startling imagery and, as the forward suggests, if a word doesn't exists then Vian makes one up - it will delight and enthrall you throughout.
I had no preconceptions about Boris Vian although my knowledge of French 20th C lit. is very limited.
I thoroughly recommend this book - it is heartwarming without ever being sentimental, clever without being pompous, and funny without being patronising (although I am sure some of the humour is lost in translation - hence the exhaustive notes).

Plant a tree, raise a child, read this book, 23 Feb 2005
A symphony of love, dream, music, imagination.
I haven't seen life the same way since I read this book. It makes new eyes grow, take my word for it. Or better, don't. Read it.
You don't know what magic is until you finish this masterpiece.

The best Boris Vian ever, 23 Feb 2005
If you have never read Boris Vian, this should be your first one. In it you will find all the ingredients that made him an icon of world litterature. A spoonfull of humor, an acid society critic, and in the end, a great love lesson.

"Somebody perfectly free has no urge to do anything at all.", 07 Jan 2004
In descriptions so richly imagined that he sometimes has to invent new words, Boris Vian brings to life the strange world discovered by a wandering traveler, Timortis, a psychiatrist who has been born an adult and has no memories of his own. An "empty vessel," he believes that if he can learn everything there is to know about someone through psychoanalysis, he can bring about a transferrence of identity and make his own life more complete. When he hears the cries of Clementine, a village woman giving birth to triplets, he stops to give aid and ends up delivering her sons--Noel, Joel, and Alfa Romeo.

Though the birthing scene is humorous, the full satirical flavor and the allegorical construction of this novel do not unfold until Timortis travels into the village. There he discovers that he has arrived just in time for the Old Folks Fair, at which old people are auctioned off like cattle and treated like them. Later Timortis visits a shop where he sees a child being worked to the verge of death, then revived with icewater. Farm animals, however, are given days off when they behave themselves and allowed to hitchhike if they need rides. A scapegoat, named Glory Hallelujah, retrieves putrid, decaying things from a blood-red stream with his teeth, his job being to "swallow the shame of the whole village." The vicar announces that "God is not utilitarian. God is a birthday present...a luxury, a tasseled cushion made of beaten gold." A horse is crucified for his sexual depravity. Additional bizarre episodes abound, leaving the reader to ponder the meaning of the non-stop action, at the same time that s/he is whisked along by the speed of Vian's prose to new and still more surprising events.

Puns, word play, and literary inventions fill the novel, even as Vian's often lyrical sentences and vibrant descriptions set the scenes. Satirizing the existing world for some of its most obvious faults, Vian presents a remarkably open-ended allegory, which makes the reader think at the same time that s/he often laughs at the absurdities and winces at the truths. But this is no full-blown alternative universe created to illustrate a serious and specific political or social agenda. Here Vian symbolically smiles at the reader as he leads Timortis through this strange community from episode to episode, illustrating his own opinions in a more or less random way, having fun all the time, while making some serious points. Not scholarly, though highly literate, this is a book for which one must buckle up, sit back, and just enjoy the ride. Mary Whipple

Depends on being a Boris fan, 15 Mar 2006
A rather esoteric book, that only those interested in Boris Vian or the Saint Germain Des Pres scene will like. Anyone else will be nonplussed by it. A historical document lovingly rendered into a handsome English language version. A warning about Vian is his love of bad puns, which may have worked better in French, in the 1950's. Dated but delightful. Vian is surprisingly well translated in English, considering the small audience he must attract, I'd recommend starting with his novels and short stories before buying this book. One for the converted I think. Search for other 'pataphysical works. Raymond Queneau to The London Institute of 'Pataphysics (Atlas Press), the originator: Alfred Jarry. This will lead to well known names of Oulipo members like Georges Perec, Calvino, Harry Mathews and lesser known people (to an english audience) like Leris, Butor, Roubaud, Benabou, Arrabal, Cortazar and so on... If you liked Vians I Spit on Your Grave, don't bother with the movie, but look at the books it parodied, the best works by Jim Thompson (later 'homages' to pulp include the magnificent James Ellroy and David Peace novels). If you like Vians other works, perhaps look at some of the surrealist and related texts by people like Rene Daumal, Breton (UGH), Raymond Roussel (an acquired taste), Cendrars,Soupault. Living authors not French or Surrealist that may appeal are Richard Beard (English), Gilbert Sorrentino (USA), or Virgilio Pinera (Cuban).

Not really Vian, but couldn't be anyone else, 23 Feb 2005
If you are an unconditionnal fan of Boris Vian and his somehow surrealist literature, this is not what you expect.
Forget about the magic of "Foam of the daze", forget about the nonsense of "Autumn in Peking". This story is crude, violent, disturbing, with a lot of sex.
A must read, anyway. You will enter another door of the Boris Vian's genius.