Foam of the Daze

Author(s): Boris Vian; Brian Harper (Translator)

Fiction

Raymond Queneau called it the "most poignant love story of our time," and Julio Cort zar said of its author: "I can't think of another writer who can move me as surreptitiously as Vian does." Boris Vian (1920-1959) was a songwriter, trumpet-player, poet, playwright and pataphysician, but is best remembered for his 1947 novel, Foam of the Daze, a jazz-fueled science-fiction romance that mingles bittersweet and surrealist absurdity with a melancholic meditation on the frailty of life. It tells the tale of Colin, a wealthy young dandy, and Chloe, his newly wedded wife who develops a terrible illness: a water lily in her lung. The supporting cast includes Chick, an obsessive collector of Jean-Sol Partre memorabilia; Colin's libertine manservant Nicolas, a Jeeves for the jazz-age; the philosopher Jean-Sol Partre himself, Vian's rib-poking tribute to his friend Jean-Paul Sartre and the pianocktail: a cocktail-mixing piano whose individual notes are tuned to liqueurs that mix incredible cocktails. Michel Gondry's film adaptation of the novel, to star Audrey Tautou, will begin production in 2012.


Product Information

General Fields

  • : 9780966234633
  • : Tamtam Books
  • : Tamtam Books
  • : 0.001
  • : March 2012
  • : 220mm X 140mm X 13mm
  • : United States
  • : books

Special Fields

  • : Boris Vian; Brian Harper (Translator)
  • : Paperback
  • : 212
  • : English
  • : 843.914
  • : 261
  • : illustrations