A half-century homage to France”s master-prankster
by Alison Hird
Radio France Internationale
December 7, 2009
Boris Vian [1920 – 1959], the provocative writer, singer, poet, inventor and jazz trumpeter, was underestimated during his short, fast lifetime. Yet he had – and still has – a huge impact on French cultural and intellectual life. Fifty years after his death, Boris has come of age.
In the preface to his perhaps finest and most famous novel L”Ecume des jours (Froth on the Daydream) Vian wrote: “There are only two things: love, all sorts of love, with pretty girls, and the music”¦of Duke Ellington. Everything else ought to go, because everything else is ugly”.
Wilfully provocative maybe, but there was more than a hint of truth in those words: Vian loved jazz and everything frivolous.
He refused to take himself seriously… Read more here.