Author: Boris Vian
Julia Older/
Translator(s): Julia Older
Publisher: Rupa
Year: 2005
Language: English
Pages: 116
ISBN/UPC (if available): 8129106434
Description
In Paris in the 1950s Boris Vian was everything-poet, fiction writer, singer, subversive, actor, musician, and jazz critic. He was my friend, and I admired him passionately for his eclecticism, devastating irony, and taste for provocation.
Fortunately, in France since his death Boris Vian has become the object of a veritable cult, and his work constantly is being reprinted.
REVIEWS
Ten avant-garde fables of serious whimsy, ushered in by Older’s useful introduction, bibliography, and discography, The collection displays Vian’s range from gallows humor to verbal fireworks, Playful and tough, fresh and zany.
–Publishers Weekly
Blues for a Black Cat has the unmistakable flavor of the time and place, the absurdist messages of rebellion, verbal riffs and goofy anarchic encounters; an expiring jazz-man who sells his sweat, a cat with a British accent, and a piano that mixes a cocktail when Mood Indigo is played.
-Boston Globe
Vian has a cult of followers, many attracted by his virtuosity, but it is his humanity, that insures enduring interest in his work.
-Austin Chronicle
Contents
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
FOREWORD BY LOUIS MALLE
INTRODUCING BORIS VIAN
The Plumber
Pins and Needles
Blues for a Black Cat
Cancer
Dead Fish
Journey to Khonostrov
Blue Fairy Tale
Fog
Good Students
One-Way Street
By Boris Vian (Bibliography)