Synopses & Reviews
Part social epic, part punk-rock thriller, writer/filmmaker Virginie Despentes's Vernon Subutex
trilogy continues the Man Booker International Prize shortlisted
sprawling tale of an ex-record shop clerk's celebrity fortunes and
misfortunes.
Rock star Alex Bleach might be dead, but he has a secret. It's a
secret that concerns several people, but the only person who can unlock
it is Vernon Subutex, former record shop proprietor turned homeless
messiah and guru, last seen hallucinating and feverish on a bench. He
has tapes of Alex that will shake the world. The hunt is on, and the
wolves are closing in.
Meanwhile, the cast of lovers and killers in Vernon's orbit is in
violent disarray. Aïcha wants to know the truth behind the death of her
mother, the porn star Vodka Satana. And if she finds the bastards
responsible, she wants to make them pay, whatever Céleste thinks of her
plan. Céleste wants Aïcha to get a grip and stop hanging around with
Subutex's gang of disciples. The Hyena wants to find the Bleach tapes.
She wants to untangle her complicated feelings about Anaïs, her boss's
assistant. And speaking of her boss, she does not want Laurent Dopalet
to discover how badly she has double-crossed him. Big-shot producer Laurent Dopalet wants the Hyena to find and
destroy the Bleach tapes. He wants to forget he ever knew Vodka Satana.
He wants people to stop graffitiing his apartment with ludicrous
allegations. Above all, he wants people to understand: NONE OF THIS IS
HIS FAULT.
Review
"The apparent deaths by drug
overdose of indie rock star Alex Bleach and his porn star ex-girlfriend
unite a motley crew of armchair investigators in this rollicking second
volume." Publisher's Weekly (Starred Review)
Review
"Cool, plentiful, and absolute genius. Virginie Despentes has a license to
ill.
Vernon Subutex is one of the best books of this decade." Alex Gilvarry, author of Eastman Was Here
Review
"Virginie Despentes is a true
original, a punk rock George Eliot with a keen taste for the pitiable
innards of her characters: no one else has her slyly penetrating eye,
her spiky sense of humor, her razor wit that cuts like wire through the
accumulated crud of our age's default thought patterns. In her masterful
hands,
Vernon Subutex becomes a droll, hilarious, insightful record of our unfortunate times." Alexandra Kleeman, author of You Too Can Have a Body Like Mine
About the Author
Virginie Despentes is
a writer and filmmaker. She worked in an independent record store in
the early '90s, was a sex worker, and published her first novel,
Baise Moi, when she was twenty-three. She adapted the novel for
the screen in 2000, codirecting with the porn star Coralie Trinh Thi.
Upon release, it became the first film to be banned in France in
twenty-eight years. Despentes is the author of more than fifteen other
works, including
Apocalypse Baby,
Bye Bye Blondie,
Pretty Things, and the essay collection
King Kong Theory.
Frank Wynne has translated
the work of many authors including Michel Houellebecq, Boualem Sansal,
Frédéric Beigbeder, and the late Ivoirian novelist Ahmadou Kourouma. He
won the International IMPAC Literary Award with Houellebecq for
The Elementary Particles.