setting out for Ithaka

The Portrait of an Englishman in His Chateau - Andre Pieyre de Mandiargues

Dedalus Books

When the unnamed narrator crosses the causeway to the Chateau of Gamehuche, he enters a surrealist nightmare of debauchery and violence. The proceedings at the chateau are presided over by the master of Gamehuche, M. de Montcul, formerly the English diplomat, Sir Horatio Mountarse. With a cast of willing and not-so-willing acolytes, he serves up an over-refined cuisine of obscenity, sexual perversion and unspeakable cruelty. The book could be described as a dispatch written from the frontiers of depravity.

The Thief's Journal - Jean Genet

Grove Press

he Thief's Journal by Jean Genet, with an intro by Patti Smith / ISBN 9780802128270 / 272-page paperback from Grove Press

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First published in France in 1949, The Thief’s Journal is Jean Genet’s iconic work of autobiographical fiction. This new edition brings his legendary genius to future generations of readers, with an introduction by Genet’s great admirer, Patti Smith.

From a prison cell, the journal’s narrator recounts his travels across Europe in the 1930s―as a vagabond, pickpocket, and occasional prostitute―in pursuit of spiritual fulfillment through erotic trysts and evil deeds. Worshiping his own holy trinity of homosexuality, theft, and betrayal, he conducts every burglary, and each sexual encounter, with the elaborate, reverent ritual of a religious ceremony. Dressed in rags and stealing for his survival, he must evade the authorities for as long as possible.