{"product_id":"idiocy-pierre-guyotat-paperback","title":"Idiocy -- Pierre Guyotat, Paperback","description":"\u003cb\u003eAn audacious, unabashedly transgressive memoir about two acts of escape by the author: breaking from his family to seek a freer life in Paris and then, later, deserting the French military during the Algerian War.\u003c\/b\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003ePierre Guyotat was one of the most radical and uncompromising writers of the twentieth century, a literary successor to the Marquis de Sade, Georges Bataille, and Jean Genet, and whose visceral fictions and extreme linguistic experimentation have earned him cult status in France and abroad. \u003ci\u003eIdiocy\u003c\/i\u003e is his searing memoir of coming of age between 1958 and 1962, when he discovered his burgeoning sexuality as well as his aptitude for rebellion--first against his father, whom he escaped to become a writer in Paris, then against the French military authorities as a conscript in the Algerian War. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eWith unflinching honesty, Guyotat recounts the atrocities he witnessed firsthand during the war, as well as his own harrowing experience of being arrested for ostensibly inciting desertion and imprisoned in a hole in the ground for three months. Guyotat wields his prose like a scalpel, merciless in his excavation of the sensations and textures of human brutality--yet also generous and moving in his depictions of comradery and friendship. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eWinner of the 2018 Prix Médicis, this bracing, hallucinatory narrative is both an incisive condemnation of violence and colonialism, and an invaluable key to the oeuvre of a writer hailed by Edmund White as \"one of the few geniuses of our day.\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAuthor:\u003c\/b\u003e Pierre Guyotat\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublisher:\u003c\/b\u003e New York Review of Books\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublished:\u003c\/b\u003e 09\/02\/2025\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePages:\u003c\/b\u003e 256\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eBinding Type:\u003c\/b\u003e Paperback\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eWeight:\u003c\/b\u003e 0.81lbs\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN:\u003c\/b\u003e 9781681379197\u003cbr\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eAbout the Author\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePierre Guyotat\u003c\/b\u003e (1940-2020) was a French writer. In 1960, he was conscripted into the Algerian War, the inhumanity of which would become a recurring theme throughout his oeuvre. He is the author of \u003ci\u003eTomb for 500,000 Soldiers\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eEden, Eden, Eden\u003c\/i\u003e, which was banned in France upon its publication in 1970, and \u003ci\u003eComa\u003c\/i\u003e, which won the 2006 Prix Décembre. In 2018, he was awarded the Prix Femina spécial for lifetime achievement. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cb\u003ePeter Behrman de Sinéty\u003c\/b\u003e grew up in Maine and lives in Paris. He was \u003ci\u003electeur d'anglais\u003c\/i\u003e at the École Normale Supérieure, where he has taught since 2011. His translations include Éric Chevillard's \u003ci\u003eQWERTY Invectives\u003c\/i\u003e and Maël Renouard's \u003ci\u003eFragments of an Infinite Memory\u003c\/i\u003e.","brand":"Pierre Guyotat","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":46915985015012,"sku":"9781681379197","price":15.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0611\/9587\/8628\/files\/9781681379197.jpg?v=1779196228","url":"https:\/\/bookandmortar.com\/products\/idiocy-pierre-guyotat-paperback","provider":"BookandMortar","version":"1.0","type":"link"}