From Dreams to Despair

Book excerpt: This book is a study of the novels of Boris Vian, the artist, writer, jazz musician and occasional pornographer. Primarily known for his classic novel of doomed young love, L'Ecume des jours, and the pseudonymously-written erotic roman noir J'irai cracher sur vos tombes, his work displays a bewildering variety of styles, genres and narrative voices. The purpose of this book is to show that Vian's novels in fact display an overall thematic coherence, dramatizing the growth of the individual from childhood to adolescent idealism and ultimate adult disillusion. Vian is a highly popular author in France: this book seeks to prove that he is also a serious literary artist. The wordplay, pastiche and parody which fill his texts should not blind the reader to the deeper themes and issues which lie behind them, just as the protean character of his style should not be allowed to conceal the single integrated narrative which runs throughout his novels.