I recently finished Boris Vian's I Spit On Your Graves.
Although I didn't think it lived up to some of the raves I've
read here (then again, how could it?), I did think it was
pretty good.
It did get me thinking about two particular phenomena that it
embodied. The first is the framing of this Frenchman's book
as having been written in America. Now Vian went to further
lengths than many, claiming to have translated a real
American book, but his is not the only hardboiled/noir book
written by a non-American to set itself in the US. John
Hadley Chase did it, as did Munoz and Sampayo, with their
Joe's Bar and Sinner stories. Didn't all of these authors
base their takes on America on secondary, usually fictional
sources, never having visited the real thing? And doesn't
that seem to imply that America is considered the natural
setting for hardboiled/noir? I'm not sure where I'm going
with this beyond noting the trend, but I think it says
something about the idea of America and mythmaking.
The other thing Van made me think about was books about
Blacks passing as Whites. I can think of a few others --
Trick Baby and Long White Con by Iceberg Slim, a book by
Walter Mosely (don't want to name which one and spoil it for
those who haven't read it), Who Walks in Darkness by Chandler
Brossard. I haven't led the last. Is it any good? Are his
other books? Is Brossard hardboiled/noir?
Again, I don't really have anything to say about this other
than pointing it out, but this secret (and the often tragic
results of keeping it) does offer an author a setting in
which to explore ideas of race in American culture.
Mark
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