THE MYSTERY GUEST - Rare Pristine Copy of The Uncorrected Proof of The True First Edition - ONLY COPY ONLINE

Bouillier, Gregoire (Author); Stein, Lorin (Translator) & Calle, Sophie (Artist/Subject)

ISBN 10: 0374185700 / ISBN 13: 9780374185701

Published by Farrar, Straus & Giroux, New York, NY, 2006

About this Item

The author's second book. Gregoire Bouillier's masterpiece. Uncorrected Proof. Precedes and should not be confused with all other subsequent editions, particularly the regular trade edition. Published in a tiny one-time-only print run as a softcover original only. Distributed to friends and colleagues of the author and publisher only. The Uncorrected Proof is now very rare. Without DJ, as issued. The Uncorrected Proof is in austerely elegant red softcovers with plain black titles on the cover and spine, as issued, which is appropriate, and would have looked much better than the over-designed DJ of the regular trade edition. Presents Gregoire Bouillier's "L'invite mystere" in the pioneering and magisterial English translation by Lorin Stein, the Editor of The Paris Review. Dedicated to the great French Conceptual artist Sophie Calle, who was the author's former lover (and subject). "A work of fiendish wit and refinement" (L'Humanite). Pushes auto-fiction and autobiography, two of the sacred genres of French - and European - literature into a Beckettian level of laconic absurdity and humor which, it is important to say, could not be further apart from the intense and harrowing style of the other great French auto-fictionist of our time, Nobel Laureate Annie Ernaux. There is no public record of the two authors ever having met or socialized. Perhaps it is just as well because they are poles apart in EVERY way. It may also help explain why Gregoire Bouillier commands "the most passionate cult following in France today" (Publisher's blurb). Mostly men, it is safe to assume. Because here is a curious thing about auto-fiction: Many of Annie Ernaux's great books are all about men; ALL of Gregoire Bouillier's oeuvre are about women. They are revealing about - and should be read by - their respective subjects, the opposite sex, "opposite" being given a whole new dimension and meaning for our time. Yet, mostly women read Arnaux, mostly men read Bouillier. "Cultural/political identity", as always, narrows and excludes rather than illuminates. Gregoire Bouillier has published only six books thus far, the first two, "Rapport sur Moi" ("Report On Myself") and this book being the two published in English translation, and to deservedly enormous critical acclaim. A twenty-nine-page short story, "Cap Canaveral", which is a masterpiece, was published in English translation (in 2015) by a minute Berlin publisher, promptly disappeared, and is virtually impossible to find. His English-language readers will have to wait awhile for his 800-plus-page "Le Dossier M" (2017). An absolute "must-have" title for Gregoire Bouillier collectors. This is a copy of the Uncorrected Proof. This title is a great book. This is the only copy of the Uncorrected Proof of the true First Edition/First Printing in English (FSG) available online and is in especially fine condition: Clean, crisp, and bright. Please note: Precedes and should not be confused with all other subsequent editions. ALL other copies available online are subsequent editions and printings. This is surely an accessible and lovely alternative. A rare copy thus. One of the most brilliant writers of our time. A fine collectible copy. (SEE ALSO GREGOIRE BOUILLIER'S "REPORT ON MYSELF" AND ANNIE ERNAUX TITLES IN OUR CATALOG).

Seller Inventory # ABE-1785889725197

Bibliographic Details

• Title: THE MYSTERY GUEST - Rare Pristine Copy of The Uncorrected Proof of The True First Edition - ONLY COPY ONLINE
• Publisher: Farrar, Straus & Giroux, New York, NY
• Publication Date: 2006
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0374185700
• ISBN 13: 9780374185701
• Binding: Soft cover
• Edition: 1st Edition, Special Edition
• Printing: 1st Printing
• Condition: As New

About this title

Synopsis

When the phone rang on a gloomy fall afternoon in 1990, Grégoire Bouillier had no way of knowing that it was the woman who’d left him, without warning, ten years before. And he couldn’t have guessed why she was calling—not to apologize for, or explain, the way she’d vanished from his life, but to invite him to a party. A birthday party. For a woman he’d never met.

 

This is the story of how one man got over a broken heart, learned to love again, stopped wearing turtlenecks, regained his faith in literature, participated in a work of performance art by mistake, and spent his rent money on a bottle of 1964 bordeaux that nobody ever drank. The Mystery Guest is, in the words of L’Humanité, a work of “fiendish wit and refinement.” It pushes the conventions of autobiography (and those great themes of French literature: love and aging) to an absurd, poignant, and very funny conclusion. This translation marks the English-language debut of an iconoclast who has attracted one of the most passionate cult followings in French literature today.

About the Authors

Grégoire Bouillier’s first book, Rapport sur moi, received the 2002 Prix de Flore for an author of outstanding promise. The Mystery Guest (L’invité mystère) is his second book. He lives in Paris.

Grégoire Bouillier's first book, Rapport sur moi, received the 2002 Prix de Flore for an author of outstanding promise. The Mystery Guest (L'invité mystère) is his second book. He lives in Paris.