Malba Foundation

Make yourself a friend

Description

No Way Out can be read in at least two ways: as a detective novel with all the genre's hallmarks, or as a unique collaborative work between Boris Vian and Oulipo, the French avant-garde literary group founded in 1960, a year after the author's death. The story unfolds in the 1940s, in a small town in the American heartland. Frank Bolton returns from Korea with a crippled body: he lost his left hand in combat, and it was replaced with an uncomfortable steel prosthesis. He is still haunted by the ghosts of the massacres that took place there. When he arrives at his family's mansion, he is shaken by the news of his first girlfriend's murder. Soon, other victims will follow, as if someone has targeted the important people in his past. Accompanied by the eccentric and effeminate private detective Narcissus Rose and a gallery of characters from the era, surrounded by luxury cars, bourbon and plenty of jazz, Bolton tries to find the culprit and, meanwhile, narrates in the first person how the war took its toll on his life and on the society of his time.
 
Boris Vian managed to write four chapters and draft a synopsis before abandoning this novel. The project, comparable to the series of hardboiled detective novels he himself published under the pseudonym Vernon Sullivan—such as *I Spit on Your Graves* and *Let the Ugly Ones Die *—remained filed away for years in a folder under the care of his widow. Several decades later, the writers of Oulipo received the manuscript and completed it with a dazzling result. Here we find Vian's distinctive style, with its witty and elegant humor, continued by those who feel closest to his legacy and translated by Eduardo Berti, the group's only Argentinian member. In addition to adding actions, characters, and allusions to other works, Oulipo celebrates and revives the rhythm and suspense established by Vian. ​​The reading experience is remarkable: the voice is recreated with such skill that we don't know who we are reading, demonstrating that literature can be a collective and stimulating game.

Author
 Boris Vian
Oulipo

Technical specifications
Published by: Black Box
Translation: Eduardo Berti
Year: 2020
Type: Book
Binding: Paperback
Dimensions: 20 x 14 cm
Weight: 160 gr
Spanish
Pages: 144
ISBN: 978-987-1622-90-2

Boris Vian, Oulipo

There is no way to escape

$31.000
$26.350 Malba Friends Member

Price excluding national taxes: $31.000

Become a friend of Malba and get discounts of up to 15%

Description

No Way Out can be read in at least two ways: as a detective novel with all the genre's hallmarks, or as a unique collaborative work between Boris Vian and Oulipo, the French avant-garde literary group founded in 1960, a year after the author's death. The story unfolds in the 1940s, in a small town in the American heartland. Frank Bolton returns from Korea with a crippled body: he lost his left hand in combat, and it was replaced with an uncomfortable steel prosthesis. He is still haunted by the ghosts of the massacres that took place there. When he arrives at his family's mansion, he is shaken by the news of his first girlfriend's murder. Soon, other victims will follow, as if someone has targeted the important people in his past. Accompanied by the eccentric and effeminate private detective Narcissus Rose and a gallery of characters from the era, surrounded by luxury cars, bourbon and plenty of jazz, Bolton tries to find the culprit and, meanwhile, narrates in the first person how the war took its toll on his life and on the society of his time.
 
Boris Vian managed to write four chapters and draft a synopsis before abandoning this novel. The project, comparable to the series of hardboiled detective novels he himself published under the pseudonym Vernon Sullivan—such as *I Spit on Your Graves* and *Let the Ugly Ones Die *—remained filed away for years in a folder under the care of his widow. Several decades later, the writers of Oulipo received the manuscript and completed it with a dazzling result. Here we find Vian's distinctive style, with its witty and elegant humor, continued by those who feel closest to his legacy and translated by Eduardo Berti, the group's only Argentinian member. In addition to adding actions, characters, and allusions to other works, Oulipo celebrates and revives the rhythm and suspense established by Vian. ​​The reading experience is remarkable: the voice is recreated with such skill that we don't know who we are reading, demonstrating that literature can be a collective and stimulating game.

Author
 Boris Vian
Oulipo

Technical specifications
Published by: Black Box
Translation: Eduardo Berti
Year: 2020
Type: Book
Binding: Paperback
Dimensions: 20 x 14 cm
Weight: 160 gr
Spanish
Pages: 144
ISBN: 978-987-1622-90-2

Calculate shipping cost
Boris Vian, Oulipo

There is no way to escape

$31.000

No Way Out can be read in at least two ways: as a detective novel with all the genre's hallmarks, or as a unique collaborative work between Boris Vian and Oulipo, the French avant-garde literary group founded in 1960, a year after the author's death. The story unfolds in the 1940s, in a small town in the American heartland. Frank Bolton returns from Korea with a crippled body: he lost his left hand in combat, and it was replaced with an uncomfortable steel prosthesis. He is still haunted by the ghosts of the massacres that took place there. When he arrives at his family's mansion, he is shaken by the news of his first girlfriend's murder. Soon, other victims will follow, as if someone has targeted the important people in his past. Accompanied by the eccentric and effeminate private detective Narcissus Rose and a gallery of characters from the era, surrounded by luxury cars, bourbon and plenty of jazz, Bolton tries to find the culprit and, meanwhile, narrates in the first person how the war took its toll on his life and on the society of his time.
 
Boris Vian managed to write four chapters and draft a synopsis before abandoning this novel. The project, comparable to the series of hardboiled detective novels he himself published under the pseudonym Vernon Sullivan—such as *I Spit on Your Graves* and *Let the Ugly Ones Die *—remained filed away for years in a folder under the care of his widow. Several decades later, the writers of Oulipo received the manuscript and completed it with a dazzling result. Here we find Vian's distinctive style, with its witty and elegant humor, continued by those who feel closest to his legacy and translated by Eduardo Berti, the group's only Argentinian member. In addition to adding actions, characters, and allusions to other works, Oulipo celebrates and revives the rhythm and suspense established by Vian. ​​The reading experience is remarkable: the voice is recreated with such skill that we don't know who we are reading, demonstrating that literature can be a collective and stimulating game.

Author
 Boris Vian
Oulipo

Technical specifications
Published by: Black Box
Translation: Eduardo Berti
Year: 2020
Type: Book
Binding: Paperback
Dimensions: 20 x 14 cm
Weight: 160 gr
Spanish
Pages: 144
ISBN: 978-987-1622-90-2

View product