Al wrote:
> I did indeed recommend this complicated little
hardboiled book about
> revenge, written by a white Frenchman pretending to
be a black American
> writing a novel about a black man pretending to be
white. It was first
> published in 1946 in France, ostensibly as a
translation by Boris Vian of
a
> work by an unknown black American author called
Vernon Sullivan who had
been
> shunned by American publishers. In fact, Vernon
Sullivan was as fictional
> as any of the books' characters. Following a
discussion with his wife and
> publisher, Boris Vian wrote I SPIT ON YOUR GRAVES in
two weeks with the
> express purpose of creating a bestseller. By 1949,
when it was banned in
> France, SPIT had sold over half a million
copies.
*********** I stayed up late last night to finish it. It was
great. I wonder if he was inspired by Faulkner's LIGHT IN
AUGUST, which precedes it by fourteen years with an almost
identical confused-race obsession leading to murder.
miker
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