Savage (French Literature) [Paperback]

Jacques Jouet (Author), Amber Shields (translator) (Editor)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 16, 2009 | Series: French Literature

Based on the life of Post-Impressionist painter Paul Gauguin, Jacques Jouet's Savage compels the reader to ask whether it is the primitive or the civilized man who is savage. At the height of the Belle Apoque, an eccentric young clothing designer searches for inspiration and identity as an artist among the "savage" peoples of France's colonies. Influenced by several exotic lovers, a quirky vieille dame, and Adouard Manet himself, Paul's increasingly unconventional designs parallel his increasingly unbalanced state of mind as he struggles to find a market for his work among the haute bourgeoisie. The failure of this venture, coupled with psychosis due to an untreated illness, ultimately leads to his demise.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Fashion, art, philosophy and anthropology converge in Jouet's (Mountain R) slim, semibiographical novella based on the life of postimpressionist artist Paul Gauguin, grafting the facts of the famed painter's life onto a new Paul Gauguin, a clothing designer. Paul, a young man still in a formative state, recounts his trials and failures at several careers before stumbling into experimental fashion design after a happenstance meeting with a curious old woman named Madame Taillefeu-Ponçard, who sparks his creativity and trains his artist's eye. After being abandoned by his wife and inspired by his lover, Ananwana, Paul travels to a series of French colonies to explore the limits of fashion, art and the human experience. While the novella offers a series of interesting points of discussion, the book's sparse, dutiful re-creation of an increasingly mentally ill narrator prevents the reader from fully engaging with the story. This novella feels mostly like an unfinished literary experiment. (June)
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Review

"From the perspective of American readers, Jacques Jouet's writing is one of contemporary French literature's best-kept secrets. That's because until very recently none of his books had found their way into English translation--and the fault is ours rather than his, because Jouet himself has been producing smart, funny, vibrant, pungent literature in astonishing diversity and abundance for the last quarter century." --Warren Motte

"In less than twenty years, Jacques Jouet has quietly elaborated one of the most astonishing bodies of work in French literature today. He has published twenty-four books to date without ever seeming to rewrite himself, which in itself distinguishes him from many of his contemporaries . . . In short, Jouet is an experimentalist in the best sense of that word, a writer whose work comes to us fresh, each book a 'new' book, all of them clearly the product of a literary imagination animated by a keen, ludic intelligence." --World Literature Today

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Product Details

• Paperback: 108 pages
• Publisher: Dalkey Archive Pr; First English Translation edition (June 16, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1564785351
• ISBN-13: 978-1564785350
• Product Dimensions: 7.3 x 5.2 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,708,813 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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