"To Hell With The Ugly" by Boris Vian (Vernon Sullivan) TamTam Books

To Hell with the Ugly

Et on Tuera Tous Les Affreux

By Boris Vian. Translated and Introduction by Paul Knobloch. Drawings by Jessica Minckley.

First published in French in 1948, To Hell with the Ugly saw Boris Vian's noir-novelist pseudonym Vernon Sullivan take on Vian's own burlesque pop sensibilities. An erotic crime novel with science fiction tendencies, Sullivan's third outing is described by its translator as "a pornographic Hardy Boys novel set on the Island of Dr. Moreau to a be-bop soundtrack." To Hell with the Ugly recounts the tale of Rock Bailey, a dashing 19-year-old lad determined to hold onto his virginity amidst the postwar jazz-club nightlife of Los Angeles-a resolution challenged by the machinations of the demented Doctor Markus Schutz, who has decided to breed beautiful human beings and found a colony in which ugliness is a genetic crime. Vian's brutal depictions of American race relations in his previous Sullivan novels here give way to a frenetic fantasy of eugenics and uniformity-a parodic anticipation of the cosmetic surgery that was to rule Hollywood over the coming decades, as well as a comic-book reflection on Nazi Germany's visions of a master race. With the novel's breathless domino tumble of fist fights, car chases, kidnappings, and murders, Vian here set out to out-Hollywood Hollywood, serving up a narrative cocktail of Raymond Chandler, H.G.Wells, Brave New World and Barbarella.

PUBLISHER
TAMTAM BOOKS

BOOK FORMAT
PAPERBACK, 8.5 X 5.75 IN. / 200 PGS / ILLUSTRATED THROUGHOUT.

PUBLISHING STATUS
PUB DATE 2/29/2012
ACTIVE

DISTRIBUTION
D.A.P. EXCLUSIVE
CATALOG: SPRING 2012 P. 47    

PRODUCT DETAILS
ISBN 9780966234664 TRADE
LIST PRICE: $15.95 CDN $17.50

"The Dead All Have The Same Skin" by Boris Vian (Vernon Sullivan) TamTam Books

The Dead All Have The Same Skin

By Boris Vian. Introduction by Marc Lapprand. Translated by Paul Knobloch.

Vian’s second noir novel under the Vernon Sullivan pseudonym is a brutal tale of racism in postwar New York City, as protagonist Daniel Parker is blackmailed by a long lost brother. Also included is the short story “Dogs, Desire and Death,” and Vian’s account of the controversies surrounding his previous novel I Spit on your Graves.

PRAISE AND REVIEWS

Literary Hub

Appropriation and racial confusion themselves become motifs; the book reads like the nightmare of a person having an extreme identity crisis.

PUBLISHER
TAMTAM BOOKS

BOOK FORMAT
PAPERBACK, 8.5 X 5.70 IN. / 137 PGS / ILLUSTRATED THROUGHOUT.

PUBLISHING STATUS
PUB DATE 2/29/2012
ACTIVE

DISTRIBUTION
D.A.P. EXCLUSIVE
CATALOG: SPRING 2012 P. 47    

PRODUCT DETAILS
ISBN 9780966234657 TRADE
LIST PRICE: $17.00 CDN $20.00

Jean Boullet and Boris Vian

For some years now, I have been trying to locate this special limited edition of "J'irai cracker sur vos Tombes (I Spit on Your Graves) by Boris Vian, and illustrated by Jean Boullet.   Very hard to find. At one time, I wanted to republish "I Spit on Your Graves" with the original illustrations.  At the moment, I can't do this.  Still, I would love to actually see this edition.  

If anyone knows the relationship between Boris Vian and Jean Boullet, do let me know!

- Tosh Berman

Guardian Article on Boris Vian in Today's paper/website

A quick and easy introduction to Boris Vian, but not in great detail.  Nevertheless, it is nice he's getting some attention in the big media.   Sadly (and not surprisingly) there is no mention of my press TamTam Books, which pretty much presented Vian to the English reading world.

http://www.theguardian.com/books/2014/jul/31/boris-vian-paris-lecume-des-jours-mood-indigo?CMP=twt_gu&commentpage=1

Fascinating Article/Essay on Boris Vian's "I Spit On Your Graves"

Jacob Mikanowski wrote a fascinating essay/article on Boris Vian's (Vernon Sullivan) "I Spit On Your Graves and literature that deals with the duality of identity.   Read it here:

http://www.theawl.com/2013/08/tlon-invade-reality

"I Spit On Your Graves" by Boris Vian (Vernon Sullivan)

Original French English Translated Edition of "I Spit On Your Graves"

The strange and weird narrative of the Vernon Sullivan novel J'irai cracher sur vos tombes (I Spit On Your Graves) is at times more interesting than the novel itself, which... is still pretty interesting. 

 I Spit on Your Graves
by Boris Vian (1920-1959)
ISBN 0-9662346-0-X
Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 97-80958 $17
Translated from the French by Boris Vian and Milton Rosenthal

Boris Vian was a novelist, jazz musician, jazz critic, poet, playwright, a friend of Miles Davis, Duke Ellington, Raymond Queneau, Jean Cocteau, Louis Malle, Jean Paul Sartre, and numerous others of forties and fifties Parisian cultural society. He was also a French translator of American hard-boiled crime novels. One of his discoveries was an African-American writer by the name of Vernon Sullivan. Vian translated Sullivan's I Spit on Your Graves. The book is about a 'white Negro' who acts out an act of revenge against a small Southern town, in repayment for the death of his brother, who was lynched by an all white mob. Upon its release, I Spit on Your Graves became a bestseller in France, as well as a instruction manual for a copycat killer whose copy of I Spit on Your Graves was found by the murdered body of a prostitute with certain violent passages underlined. A censorship trail also came up where Sullivan as the author was held responsible for the material. It was later disclosed that Vian himself wrote the book and made up the identity of Vernon Sullivan!

This edition is a translation by Vian and an American GI buddy of his, that was never published in America. I Spit on Your Graves is an extremely violent sexy hard-boiled novel about racial and class prejudice, revenge, justice, and is itself a literary oddity due to the fact that it was written by a jazz-loving white Frenchman, who had never been to America.

Basically what i did for the TamTam edition was to keep Vian and Rosenthal's translation in tact.  I didn't clear it up due that I didn't want to change Vian's original translation of his own novel, even though there is 'odd' or awkward translated phrases within the book.  But it does capture a slightly and darkly surreal view of America and its language perceived by Vian at the time. 

When Vian was put on trial for the Sullivan book he was told by the court to produce the original English manuscript.  Vian said of course.  It was on a Friday, so over the weekend him and Rosenthal quickly translated the book into English - which of course there was no original English edition of the novel.   If you noticed the original "translated" edition is titled "I Shall Spit On Your Graves" and I changed it to the more American(ized) "i Spit On Your Graves."  Due to the nature of the subject matter and location, I felt the "Shall" should be removed from the title.

TamTam Books edition

The first printing of this novel is here and one can order it at your local bookstore or purchase it at your favorite on-line store.  

Boris Vian's THE DEAD ALL HAVE THE SAME SKIN out on April 1, 2008

TamTam Books is proud (as usual) to announce the publication of Vernon Sullivan’s (or better known as Boris Vian) masterpiece of noir-gone berserk – “The Dead All Have The Same Skin” (Les morts ont tous la meme peau).

Written one year after the controversial (putting it mildly) “I Spit on Your Graves,” you think Vian would have known better. But no, he decided to do another violent shocker that is ripped out of today’s (or was it all in my head?) headlines. This surreal masterpiece of ‘dark’ writing is about Daniel Parker who is a bouncer in a drink hell bar hole somewhere in New York City (Vian, a French man never been to the States) who is blackmailed by his long lost brother who is black and threatens him to tell the truth about his brother’s racial blood. Parker is not going to take that. His life, by that admission, becomes a tipsy topsey one-way ticket to hell.

If that is not enough it also includes a short story by Vian “Dogs, Desire, and Death” which is an erotic tale of a bad girl, a helpless driver, and the need for destruction and sexual release.

And no not even that is not enough; we have a small essay or more like a rant by Vian regarding the history of his first controversial shocker “I Spit on Your Graves.” And not only that, but also a thoughtful and informative introduction by Marc Lapprand.

Translated from the French by Paul Knobloch. Tom Recchion did the design work.

The book is 122 pages.

$18.00

978-0-9662346-5-7

Distributed by AK Distributions

“The Dead All Have The Same Skin” will be released April 1, 2008

The Dead All Have The Same Skin in my hands by April

Boris Vian's masterpiece (credited to a certain Vernon Sullivan) "The Dead All Have The Same Skin" is currently at the printers.  I should get copies of the book by April 1st.  It's mega-great.  Trust me on this one!

The Dead All Have The Same Skin (Book Cover)