Blues for a Black Cat and Other Stories

by Boris Vian, Julia Older (Editor), Louis Malle (Foreword by), Julia Older (Translator), Julia Older (Preface by)

Overview

"[Blues for a Black Cat] brings back the nimble Vian in a collection of his short fiction, initially published as Les Fourmis in 1949. The work has the unmistakable flavor of the time and place, Claude Abadie's jazz band, the coded and absurdist messages of rebellion, the wistful fables, verbal riffs and goofy anarchic encounters; the mise-en-scene includes an expiring jazzman who sells his sweat, a cat with a British accent and a piano that mixes a cocktail when "Mood Indigo" is played."—Boston Globe

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781496215130
Publisher:	UNP - Bison Books
Publication date:	08/18/2021
Series:	French Modernist Library
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	118
File size:	859 KB

About the Author

Boris Vian (1920–59), a trained engineer and jazz trumpet player, was a major literary figure in World War II France. Julia Older is the author or editor of many works. Her stories, translations, and poems have appeared in New Directions, the New Yorker, and many other journals.

Table of Contents

	Acknowledgments	vi
	Foreword	vii
	Introducing	ix
	The Plumber	1
	Pins and Needles	9
	Blues for a Black Cat	21
	Cancer	35
	Dead Fish	43
	Journey to Khonostrov	57
	Blue Fairy Tale	67
	Fog	77
	Good Students	87
	One-Way Street	95
	Bibliography	111

Editorial Reviews

Ten avant-garde fables of serious whimsy, ushered in by Older's useful introduction, bibliography and discography, are culled here from Vian's rich output. During his brief life (1920-59) author and musician Vian wrote novels, plays, poetry, songs and libretti, contributed essays to Jazz Hot in Paris, and translated American works (by Raymond Chandler and James M. Cain) that shaped his own writing. Playful and tough, fresh and zany, Vian generally speaks from a moral stance. ``Pins and Needles'' treats the horrifying absurdity of war and the Allied rescue of 1944 with wacky grisliness. In ``The Plumber'' a fast-talking workman browbeats a tenant and wreaks chaos with needless repairs. The title of ``Good Students'' refers to young police cadets who study the rule book on how to control and brutalize an innocent populace. ``Blue Fairy Tale'' is a tale of betrayal during a motor jaunt, a format evoking the fictional popularity of the automobile in the period. The title story features an articulate, garrulous cat stuck in a sewer, while drinkers turn out of a nearby bar to save it. The collection displays Vian's range from gallows humor to verbal fireworks, and happily serves to give visibility to this important writer. (July)

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly

"[Blues for a Black Cat] brings back the nimble Vian in a collection of his short fiction, initially published as Les Fourmis in 1949. The work has the unmistakable flavor of the time and place, Claude Abadie's jazz band, the coded and absurdist messages of rebellion, the wistful fables, verbal riffs and goofy anarchic encounters; the mise-en-scene includes an expiring jazzman who sells his sweat, a cat with a British accent and a piano that mixes a cocktail when "Mood Indigo" is played."—Boston Globe

Boston Globe

"Ultimately, Blues for a Black Cat is a collection of moral fables, albeit fables told in a cynical, mocking voice and set in a skewed version of the real world. Under the surface absurdity and verbal play, they offer serious indictments of human weakness and pretensions. Further, they reveal the spiritual emptiness just beneath our civilized façade. Vian's blues are not only for a black cat, but for a society without meaning."—Manoa

Manoa