• ISBN13: 9780857423399
• Binding: Hardcover
• Subject: General Books
• Publisher: Seagull Books
• Publisher Imprint: Seagull
• Publication Date: June 7, 2021
• Pages: 158
• Original Price: INR 495.0
• Language: English
• Edition: N/A
• Item Weight: 270 grams

Dominique Eddé met novelist and playwright Jean Genet in the 1970s. And she never forgot him. “His presence,” she writes, “gave me the sensation of icy fire. Like his words, his gestures were full, calculated and precise. Genet’s movements mimicked the movement of time, accumulating rather than passing.” This book is Eddé’s account of that meeting and its ripples through her years of engaging with Genet’s life and work. Rooted in personal reminiscences, it is nonetheless much broader, offering a subtle analysis of Genet’s work and teasing out largely unconsidered themes, like the absence of the father, which becomes a metaphor for Genet’s perpetual attack on the law. Tying Genet toDostoevsky through their shared fascination with crime, Eddé helps us more clearly understand Genet’s relationship to France and Palestine, Judaism, Christianity, Islam, the theatre, and even death. A powerful personal account of the influence of one writer on another, the crime of Jean Genet is also one of the most penetrating explorations yet of Genet’s work and achievement.

Dominique Eddé is the author of several novels, including, most recently, Kamal Jann and Kite, both published by Seagull Books.