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Η πριγκίπισσα του αίματος
«Ο συγκυβερνήτης, που χειριζόταν τη Zodiac, σχολίασε μέσα από τα δόντια του ότι δεν του άρεσε καθόλου η ιδέα να παρατήσει μια νεαρή λευκή, που κατά τη γνώμη του ήταν πολύ γοητευτική και ξεχωριστή, στα χέρια μια συμμορίας νέγρων. Η Άιβυ του είπε να πάει να γαμηθεί, αλλά αυτός δε θύμωσε γιατί του χαμογελούσε.»
272 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1996
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641 people want to read
About the author
Jean-Patrick Manchette
67 books325 followersJean-Patrick Manchette was a French crime novelist credited with reinventing and reinvigorating the genre. He wrote ten short novels in the seventies and early eighties, and is widely recognized as the foremost French crime fiction author of the 1970s - 1980s . His stories are violent, existentialist explorations of the human condition and French society.
Manchette was politically to the left and his writing reflects this through his analysis of social positions and culture. His books are reminiscent of the nouvelle vague crime films of Jean-Pierre Melville, employing a similarly cool, existential style on a typically American genre (film noir for Melville and pulp novels for Manchette).
Three of his novels have been translated into English. Two were published by San Francisco publisher City Lights Books (3 To Kill [from the French "Le petit bleu de la côte ouest"] and The Prone Gunman [from the French "La Position du tireur couché"]). A third, Fatale, was released by New York Review Books Classics in 2011.
Manchette believed he had gone full circle with his last novel, which he conceived as a "closure" of his Noir fiction. In a 1988 letter to a journalist, Manchette said:
" After that, as I did not have to belong to any kind of literary school, I entered a very different work area. In seven years, I have not done anything good. I'm still working at it."
In 1989, finally having found new territory he wanted to explore, Manchette started writing a new novel, La Princesse du Sang" ("Blood Princess"), an international thriller, which was supposed to be the first book in a new cycle, a series of novels covering five decades from the post-war period to present times. He died from cancer before completing it.
Starting in 1996, a year after Manchette's death, several unpublished works were released, showing how very active he was during in the years preceding his death.
In 2009, Fantagraphics Books released an English-language version of French cartoonist Jacques Tardi's adaptation of Le petit bleu, under the new English title 'West Coast Blues.' Fantagraphics released a second Tardi adaptation, of "La Position du tireur couché" (under the title "Like a Sniper Lining Up His Shot" ) in the summer of 2011, and has scheduled a third one, of "Ô Dingos! Ô Châteaux!" (under the title "Run Like Crazy Run Like Hell") in summer 2014. Manchette himself was a fan of comics, and his praised translation of Alan Moore's Watchmen into French remains in print.
Manchette was politically to the left and his writing reflects this through his analysis of social positions and culture. His books are reminiscent of the nouvelle vague crime films of Jean-Pierre Melville, employing a similarly cool, existential style on a typically American genre (film noir for Melville and pulp novels for Manchette).
Three of his novels have been translated into English. Two were published by San Francisco publisher City Lights Books (3 To Kill [from the French "Le petit bleu de la côte ouest"] and The Prone Gunman [from the French "La Position du tireur couché"]). A third, Fatale, was released by New York Review Books Classics in 2011.
Manchette believed he had gone full circle with his last novel, which he conceived as a "closure" of his Noir fiction. In a 1988 letter to a journalist, Manchette said:
" After that, as I did not have to belong to any kind of literary school, I entered a very different work area. In seven years, I have not done anything good. I'm still working at it."
In 1989, finally having found new territory he wanted to explore, Manchette started writing a new novel, La Princesse du Sang" ("Blood Princess"), an international thriller, which was supposed to be the first book in a new cycle, a series of novels covering five decades from the post-war period to present times. He died from cancer before completing it.
Starting in 1996, a year after Manchette's death, several unpublished works were released, showing how very active he was during in the years preceding his death.
In 2009, Fantagraphics Books released an English-language version of French cartoonist Jacques Tardi's adaptation of Le petit bleu, under the new English title 'West Coast Blues.' Fantagraphics released a second Tardi adaptation, of "La Position du tireur couché" (under the title "Like a Sniper Lining Up His Shot" ) in the summer of 2011, and has scheduled a third one, of "Ô Dingos! Ô Châteaux!" (under the title "Run Like Crazy Run Like Hell") in summer 2014. Manchette himself was a fan of comics, and his praised translation of Alan Moore's Watchmen into French remains in print.
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October 28, 2024
She’s back! In the spirit of Aimée Joubert from Jean-Patrick Manchette’s hip, hyperviolent Fatale, with his very last novel, Ivory Pearl, we have another robust beauty attracted to violence, this time it is insurrections, revolutions, and war.
Widening his lens from Dashiell Hammett-style hard boiled crime fiction to John Le Carré-style international thriller, Manchette sets Ivory Pearl not only in cities across the globe but in the remote mountains of Cuba. Get ready for fast-paced adventure.
The year is 1956 and our fetching twenty-six year old protagonist, Ivory Pearl aka Ivy, is a professional photographer selling to top magazines, Paris Match, Life. She’s not only good, she’s outstanding, primed to be the next Robert Capa. Danger is her game - Ivy has accompanied guerillas in Malaya and Vietnam, revolutionaries in Morocco and Algeria. No war zone is off limits. She’s known combat from an early age. During the German invasion of France when she was just a little girl, she ran away from a horrible orphanage and was soon adopted as a mascot by a British fighting unit. After the war, she made her way to Berlin to live on the fringes, selling photos she snapped with a stolen camera.
One bright spot in Ivy’s life: back in 1946 as a Flight Lieutenant in the Royal Air Force, Samuel Farakhan meets the plucky sixteen-year-old and decides to share his inherited wealth by paying for Ivy’s schooling at a college in Switzerland. The only thing Samuel asks in return is that Ivy meet with him every New Year's Day. And so she does, for ten years running, right up until the time we join her paying a visit to Farakhan’s home north of Paris. As is their custom, gifts are exchanged: Ivy, as per usual, gives Farakhan a gun, usually stolen, this time a Chinese-made semiautomatic pistol; Farakhan, in turn, gives Ivy a translation of Dante's The Divine Comedy, although he knows Ivy much prefers American hard-boiled crime novels.
After dinner and a round of evening target practice, Ivy surprises her friend (there’s nothing sexual between them as Samuel is gay) by telling him she’s quitting, leaving civilization behind for the next months to go off and take photos of trees and animals. Manchette fans will hear a familiar ring – hired killer Martin Terrier from The Prone Gunman also wanted to call it quits. Farakhan stays cool, lets Ivy know, if she is really serious, he has the perfect spot for her retreat from civilization: the Sierra Maestra in Cuba. Sounds grand but does her longtime friend have an ulterior motive in picking this exact mountain range? He just might. The thick plottens.
The plot not only thickens but quickly accelerates. Among the players in the unfolding drama: Victor Maurer, savvy combatant and hunter, expert in all manner of weapons, including long bow and Malaysian parang; Negra, adolescent European girl kidnapped to be raised out in the jungle; Aaron Black, international arms dealer who works a deal to deliver five thousand Mauser short rifles and over two hundred La Coruna submachine guns to revolutionaries in North Africa. Also, no small contributor to pace and high risk stakes is the opening chapter's bloodbath, vintage Jean-Patrick Manchette, where hacking, shooting and explosion account for a stack of corpses.
Very much in keeping with J-P Manchette’s chic aesthetic, there’s supercool brand name products galore: black Aronde sedan, semi-automatic Sauer Model 38 pistol, Gitane cigarettes, Zippo lighter, Voigtlander camera with 135mm telephoto lens. Dizzy Gallespie jazz fills the air and Ivy reads Ed Lacy’s Something on a Stick and William Riley Burnett’s Vanity Row. Men and women floating along in their sleek, new, ultramodern world.
Ivory Pearl contains twenty-seven chapters, mostly following the female protagonist but also shifting focus to other major players. Although cancer claimed the French author at age fifty-two before he was able to finish, this NYRB edition includes Jean-Patrick Manchette’s extensive notes on how he planned to continue and conclude his novel.
And here are three sparkling quotes from Gary Indiana's Afterward:
"Manchette knew that we don't know the laws of history. But he believed Ivory Pearl and its sequels might illuminate, for himself and his readers, how the power tectonics and changing mores of the decades he'd lived through produced the global mess we live in now."
"Everyday life's banal surfaces seethe with ant-line humans dazzled by advertising and consumer products and deadened by jobs and television. The only interruption of the scanning pattern happens when violence slashes into an otherwise mediocre existence. Manchette's view is bleak, matter-of-fact, risibly acerbic in its flat descriptions of carnage. Today it seems indisputably accurate as well."
"Manchette compels us to examine the stories we tell ourselves in light of the bigger, oppressive stories unfolding around us, to think about history as something we collectively make as well as something that makes us."
All in all, I highly recommend Ivory Pearl.
Jean-Patrick Manchette (1942-1995), French crime novelist who reinvented and reinvigorated the genre
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October 9, 2019Με αφορμή τις επαναστάσεις του 1956 στην Αλγερία και τη Βουδαπέστη, και με πρόθεση να ανασυνθέσει την ιστορία από εκείνη την εποχή και μετά, συνεχίζοντας με τις δεκαετίες του ’60 και του ’70, ο Jean - Patrick Manchette αποφάσισε στα 1989 ν’ ανοίξει έναν νέο συγγραφικό κύκλο (αίματος) που θα τον ονόμαζε «Οι άνθρωποι των σκοτεινών καιρών».
Το σχέδιο ήταν φιλόδοξο, η δράση του νέου του έργου θα μεταφερόταν σ’ ένα σκηνικό παγκόσμιας κλίμακας, στο οποίο οι όποιες πολιτικές εξελίξεις θα εμπλέκονταν ουσιωδώς με την πλοκή της αστυνομικής ιστορίας και θα επηρέαζαν αναπόδραστα τις ζωές των ηρώων του, όμως η αρρώστια τον πρόλαβε κι οι σχεδιασμοί του Manchette ολοκληρώθηκαν πρόωρα με τη συγγραφή ενός σχεδιάσματος μονάχα της Πριγκίπισσας του Αίματος, του βιβλίου, δηλαδή, που έμελλε να κλείσει εν τη γενέσει του τον συγγραφικό αυτό κύκλο και να αποτελέσει το κύκνειο άσμα του συγγραφέα που ανανέωσε το γαλλικό νουάρ μυθιστόρημα.
Εκκινώντας από την απαγωγή της ανήλικης ανιψιάς ενός διεθνούς λαθρέμπορου όπλων που θα καταλήξει σε λουτρό αίματος και μεταφέροντας τη δράση της ιστορίας του, λίγα χρόνια μετά, από το Παρίσι στην προεπαναστατική Κούβα, ο Manchette θ’ ακολουθήσει την φωτορεπόρτερ Άιβορυ Περλ στην προσπάθειά της να ξαναβρεί τα ίχνη του χαμένου κοριτσιού και του απαγωγέα της. Κι αφού ό,τι άρχισε με αίμα δεν μπορεί παρά να ολοκληρωθεί με τον ίδιο τρόπο, ένα εμπνευσμένο αιματοβαμμένο ανθρωποκυνηγητό στα “τελευταία” κεφάλαια του βιβλίου έρχεται για να υπενθυμίσει στον αναγνώστη ποιος είναι ο Manchette και γιατί θεωρείται ως ο πλέον τελειομανής στυλίστας της (αστυνομικής) βίας.
Ημιτελές, με τις σημειώσεις του συγγραφέα να προδιαγράφουν την (πιθανή) συνέχεια και το τέλος της ιστορίας, είναι μάλλον άδικο να αξιολογηθεί.
Το σχέδιο ήταν φιλόδοξο, η δράση του νέου του έργου θα μεταφερόταν σ’ ένα σκηνικό παγκόσμιας κλίμακας, στο οποίο οι όποιες πολιτικές εξελίξεις θα εμπλέκονταν ουσιωδώς με την πλοκή της αστυνομικής ιστορίας και θα επηρέαζαν αναπόδραστα τις ζωές των ηρώων του, όμως η αρρώστια τον πρόλαβε κι οι σχεδιασμοί του Manchette ολοκληρώθηκαν πρόωρα με τη συγγραφή ενός σχεδιάσματος μονάχα της Πριγκίπισσας του Αίματος, του βιβλίου, δηλαδή, που έμελλε να κλείσει εν τη γενέσει του τον συγγραφικό αυτό κύκλο και να αποτελέσει το κύκνειο άσμα του συγγραφέα που ανανέωσε το γαλλικό νουάρ μυθιστόρημα.
Εκκινώντας από την απαγωγή της ανήλικης ανιψιάς ενός διεθνούς λαθρέμπορου όπλων που θα καταλήξει σε λουτρό αίματος και μεταφέροντας τη δράση της ιστορίας του, λίγα χρόνια μετά, από το Παρίσι στην προεπαναστατική Κούβα, ο Manchette θ’ ακολουθήσει την φωτορεπόρτερ Άιβορυ Περλ στην προσπάθειά της να ξαναβρεί τα ίχνη του χαμένου κοριτσιού και του απαγωγέα της. Κι αφού ό,τι άρχισε με αίμα δεν μπορεί παρά να ολοκληρωθεί με τον ίδιο τρόπο, ένα εμπνευσμένο αιματοβαμμένο ανθρωποκυνηγητό στα “τελευταία” κεφάλαια του βιβλίου έρχεται για να υπενθυμίσει στον αναγνώστη ποιος είναι ο Manchette και γιατί θεωρείται ως ο πλέον τελειομανής στυλίστας της (αστυνομικής) βίας.
Ημιτελές, με τις σημειώσεις του συγγραφέα να προδιαγράφουν την (πιθανή) συνέχεια και το τέλος της ιστορίας, είναι μάλλον άδικο να αξιολογηθεί.
"Εκείνο το καλοκαίρι ήμουν δεκατριών χρονών και πίστευα ότι γινόταν να ζήσει κανείς στο απυρόβλητο της Ιστορίας. Μερικά χρόνια αργότερα άλλαξα γνώμη."
February 7, 2019
190918: well this rating is for what might have been, as the author did not live to complete it, best appreciated when seen through the lense (camera) of history, not merely the significant year as primary setting in all its political ramifications (1956) ranging across the world and in some twist no longer ‘neo-polar’ and influenced by hammet, but now espionage by le carre, this is a relentlessly plotted, necessarily political, honed, poetic, concise new turn for author manchette. oh, and it is fun...
read in one sitting and familiar with both influences hammet and le carre, in a way it is basically an espionage novel centered on the titular character ‘ivy’ in le carre’s world, written in manchette’s style, though this might understate a few innovations. for example, it is necessary in manchette to talk of all ‘surfaces’ of people, houses, cars, as well as fetishized mechanisms for killing people, of various guns, knives, how effective and how limited, how you cannot count on knowing what works all the time, what, like bow and arrows, if wielded by some, is wonderfully effective and silent...
in my reading i have come to know many national literatures, many iterations, many adoptions, many confluences of this and that sort of lit in which i would probably not be interested if current or written in typical prose. cut it down, fragment, render actions in simple prose. this is manchette, and strangely enough i think of jules verne and his confidence in ‘things’ and how used (lighthouse at the end of the world), then i think of robbe-grillet and his transparency, in his anti-psychology and surrealism (in the labyrinth), then i think of how this opposes le carre and his precise recovery of psychology of lying, betraying. in manchette ivy is spying only what is there and less what it means...
these are a few of the authors i think of, not necessarily those that influenced the writing, some enough to reread and compare, such as ‘tinker tailor soldier spy’ by le carre, the miniseries of which alerted me to its sort of anti-action, but powerfully compelling scenes, then reading the book again and seeing, yes, most of it involves people sitting somewhere quiet and telling stories... so this is one extreme and manchette is the other, where most of it describes actions and stories emerge at the same time, often somewhere far away, only in ways relevant and concise, and talking is not rounded characters unwinding why as strategic conferences how to do this, where, when, who, but exactly why is at the time not included... then there is william gibson and how ‘surface’ is text and more that we have clothes or bodies or weapons or tech in conflict rather than characters, in say ‘zero history’...
there is manchette’s poetic and exact, brief and effective, quick and failing, way of writing actions, and in the notes for the unfinished and prospectus for future series, that suggest where he was going and most usefully for me, outlines political events alluded to in the written text, and situates the actions here and there as being part of a greater scheme in writing what might have been. there is the economy which gives us ins to various good guys, the hip jazz they like or despise, the cars driven, always the weapons, pistol rather than revolver, calibre and construction and when and why to use this here and not that... and perhaps you the reader wants to consult a dictionary to discover what exactly if this ‘anthracite’ color of certain suits...
an idea i would like to read, not likely to write, perhaps already written somewhere- a novel or something about the ‘life’ of a pistol, not a revolver, from ‘birth’ through its adventures, use or misuse or disuse, here displayed, here history, here just used, the given ‘psychology’ of a weapon’s life, even a tentative ‘philosophy’ that the gun lives or thinks out, the fact it has one purpose and one action but not really of its own choice, who or what is shot, who is doing the shooting. obviously a comic story. pychon has something like this in ‘gravity’s rainbow’ but there it is a lightbulb (illumination?) and its agency is even less and then its life is entwined in a plot of conspiracies and far from the easiest to follow...
read in one sitting and familiar with both influences hammet and le carre, in a way it is basically an espionage novel centered on the titular character ‘ivy’ in le carre’s world, written in manchette’s style, though this might understate a few innovations. for example, it is necessary in manchette to talk of all ‘surfaces’ of people, houses, cars, as well as fetishized mechanisms for killing people, of various guns, knives, how effective and how limited, how you cannot count on knowing what works all the time, what, like bow and arrows, if wielded by some, is wonderfully effective and silent...
in my reading i have come to know many national literatures, many iterations, many adoptions, many confluences of this and that sort of lit in which i would probably not be interested if current or written in typical prose. cut it down, fragment, render actions in simple prose. this is manchette, and strangely enough i think of jules verne and his confidence in ‘things’ and how used (lighthouse at the end of the world), then i think of robbe-grillet and his transparency, in his anti-psychology and surrealism (in the labyrinth), then i think of how this opposes le carre and his precise recovery of psychology of lying, betraying. in manchette ivy is spying only what is there and less what it means...
these are a few of the authors i think of, not necessarily those that influenced the writing, some enough to reread and compare, such as ‘tinker tailor soldier spy’ by le carre, the miniseries of which alerted me to its sort of anti-action, but powerfully compelling scenes, then reading the book again and seeing, yes, most of it involves people sitting somewhere quiet and telling stories... so this is one extreme and manchette is the other, where most of it describes actions and stories emerge at the same time, often somewhere far away, only in ways relevant and concise, and talking is not rounded characters unwinding why as strategic conferences how to do this, where, when, who, but exactly why is at the time not included... then there is william gibson and how ‘surface’ is text and more that we have clothes or bodies or weapons or tech in conflict rather than characters, in say ‘zero history’...
there is manchette’s poetic and exact, brief and effective, quick and failing, way of writing actions, and in the notes for the unfinished and prospectus for future series, that suggest where he was going and most usefully for me, outlines political events alluded to in the written text, and situates the actions here and there as being part of a greater scheme in writing what might have been. there is the economy which gives us ins to various good guys, the hip jazz they like or despise, the cars driven, always the weapons, pistol rather than revolver, calibre and construction and when and why to use this here and not that... and perhaps you the reader wants to consult a dictionary to discover what exactly if this ‘anthracite’ color of certain suits...
an idea i would like to read, not likely to write, perhaps already written somewhere- a novel or something about the ‘life’ of a pistol, not a revolver, from ‘birth’ through its adventures, use or misuse or disuse, here displayed, here history, here just used, the given ‘psychology’ of a weapon’s life, even a tentative ‘philosophy’ that the gun lives or thinks out, the fact it has one purpose and one action but not really of its own choice, who or what is shot, who is doing the shooting. obviously a comic story. pychon has something like this in ‘gravity’s rainbow’ but there it is a lightbulb (illumination?) and its agency is even less and then its life is entwined in a plot of conspiracies and far from the easiest to follow...
May 27, 2018
Jean-Patrick Manchette is a great writer. A blanket statement, yes, but I can't imagine anyone who doesn't love noir crime writing avoiding his novels. Not only that, but he mixes in pop culture in such a fashion that it relates to the world of the Situationists. "Ivory Pearl" is an unfinished novel, due to the author's death from cancer, but still, a classic piece of crime fiction.
Ivory Pearl is the main character and she's a news photographer who is capturing the cold war era in Europe, Africa as well as Cuba, where this narrative takes place. Based on the political landscape, Manchette has written a remarkable page-turner with an incredible cast of characters. It reads like a 1930s serial but charged with the mechanics of the politics of the 1950s. Incredible translation from Donald Nicholson-Smith as well. A win-win.
Ivory Pearl is the main character and she's a news photographer who is capturing the cold war era in Europe, Africa as well as Cuba, where this narrative takes place. Based on the political landscape, Manchette has written a remarkable page-turner with an incredible cast of characters. It reads like a 1930s serial but charged with the mechanics of the politics of the 1950s. Incredible translation from Donald Nicholson-Smith as well. A win-win.
November 25, 2018
NYRB
Brilliant Afterword by Gary Indiana
Brilliant Afterword by Gary Indiana
January 8, 2013
Το μυθιστόρημα αυτό θα ήταν καταπληκτικό αλλά δυστυχώς, είναι ημιτελές, πράγμα που, κάπως άτιμα, δεν αναφέρεται πάνω στο βιβλίο από τις εκδόσεις Άγρα.
Ακριβώς πάνω στο απόγειο της δράσης η δυνατή αφήγηση του Μανσέτ κόβεται και από εκεί και πέρα διαβάζουμε το προσχέδιο που είχε κάνει, δηλ. μια σύνοψη. Πυκνή μεν, σύνοψη δε.
Τα τρία αστεράκια εδώ είναι αποκλειστικά για το ημιτελές του έργου και την απόκρυψη αυτού από τις εκδόσεις. Αλλιώς, το μυθιστόρημα πήγαινε για πεντάρι. Μεγάλο κρίμα που δεν πρόλαβε να το τελειώσει.
Ακριβώς πάνω στο απόγειο της δράσης η δυνατή αφήγηση του Μανσέτ κόβεται και από εκεί και πέρα διαβάζουμε το προσχέδιο που είχε κάνει, δηλ. μια σύνοψη. Πυκνή μεν, σύνοψη δε.
Τα τρία αστεράκια εδώ είναι αποκλειστικά για το ημιτελές του έργου και την απόκρυψη αυτού από τις εκδόσεις. Αλλιώς, το μυθιστόρημα πήγαινε για πεντάρι. Μεγάλο κρίμα που δεν πρόλαβε να το τελειώσει.
July 7, 2018
Manchette’s four previous novels that have been translated to English are wonderful, stand-outs in the noir genre. This was unfinished at his death and has been tidied up by his son. It is a deviation for Manchette as it’s an espionage thriller rather than noir. Whilst it’s a perfectly good read, it doesn’t stand out like his earlier work. It obviously suffers also from being unfinished. There is a chapter at the end given over to his notes that finish the story, but they are only notes, and sometimes there are two or three options as to the way the story may go.
It is set in the 1950s and features a strong female heroine, ex war photographer, Ivy (the Ivory Pearl of the title). The plot is based around her work as an agent trying to locate a young girl from a botched kidnap rescue attempt years before. The setting of the Cuban jungle works well, and there is plenty of violence, as you might expect from Manchette.
It is set in the 1950s and features a strong female heroine, ex war photographer, Ivy (the Ivory Pearl of the title). The plot is based around her work as an agent trying to locate a young girl from a botched kidnap rescue attempt years before. The setting of the Cuban jungle works well, and there is plenty of violence, as you might expect from Manchette.
January 13, 2019
Από τις πιο ατυχείς περίπτώσεις συγγραφέα ο Manchette: τα βιβλία του τελειώνουν γρήγορα. Στην συγκεκριμένη περίπτωση, στο αριστούργημά του, τον διέκοψε ο καρκίνος.
Αυτό όμως δεν εμποδίζει το βιβλίο να είναι αριστουργηματικό, έστω και αν ενημερωνόμαστε για την τελική του έκβαση με το παράρτημα σημειώσεων του συγγραφέα.
Όμως το πιο σημαντικό: αυτό το βιβλίο άνοιξε τον δρόμο για το ιστορικο-πολιτικό νουάρ που ακολούθησε από τους Ferey και Attia, μεταξύ άλλων.
Διαβάστε το, προετοιμασμένοι για την πίκρα του αποχωρισμού.
Αυτό όμως δεν εμποδίζει το βιβλίο να είναι αριστουργηματικό, έστω και αν ενημερωνόμαστε για την τελική του έκβαση με το παράρτημα σημειώσεων του συγγραφέα.
Όμως το πιο σημαντικό: αυτό το βιβλίο άνοιξε τον δρόμο για το ιστορικο-πολιτικό νουάρ που ακολούθησε από τους Ferey και Attia, μεταξύ άλλων.
Διαβάστε το, προετοιμασμένοι για την πίκρα του αποχωρισμού.
November 13, 2020
A feral child adopted by troops during World War II later becomes an international war photographer who then adopts another feral child exposed to violence.
Mystery Review: Ivory Pearl remained unfinished when Jean-Patrick Manchette (1942-1995) died. I rarely read uncompleted novels because they're ultimately unsatisfying (for a variety of reasons). Translator Donald Nicholson-Smith calls this "an unrevised manuscript." There was, however, much to be gleaned from Ivory Pearl. The reader gets to see Manchette constructing his novel, writing the basic structure and leaving spaces to be realized later with phrases such as "and other things." Some chapters are truncated suggesting that they would've been expanded with more description or action. This novel was intended to be the first in a series assessing the political world stage post-WWII, including both notable events such as Castro's revolution in Cuba and lesser known actions such as the CIA's involvement in the opium trade. Looking back on history was a way for Manchette to present a social critique and explore his socio-political-economic worldview, his thoughts on various economic and political movements. Which view here acts as a parallel to the "thriller" storyline of a munitions-dealing family and the collateral damage of their actions. Manchette always injected politics into his novels, but often left the reader with the feeling that there was much more he would've discussed but for fear of weakening the story. I'm similarly curious how Stieg Larsson would've completed his projected political series that began with The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (in English). Manchette writes women well, especially women of action with fearsome agency. Here our war photographer (think Robert Capa, namechecked herein) nicknamed "Ivory Pearl" (rhymes with "girl") is intriguing and challenging, and if tragically unable to have been fully developed is as compelling as his female protagonists in The Mad and the Bad and Fatale. The ending is a series of paragraphs apparently taken from the author's notes, but it's unclear just how he would've wrapped up the story and if anyone would've lived happily ever after. Ivory Pearl is interesting in its insights into how authors work and what might've been, but is necessary only for someone determined to read everything the French neo-noir author wrote. [3★]
Mystery Review: Ivory Pearl remained unfinished when Jean-Patrick Manchette (1942-1995) died. I rarely read uncompleted novels because they're ultimately unsatisfying (for a variety of reasons). Translator Donald Nicholson-Smith calls this "an unrevised manuscript." There was, however, much to be gleaned from Ivory Pearl. The reader gets to see Manchette constructing his novel, writing the basic structure and leaving spaces to be realized later with phrases such as "and other things." Some chapters are truncated suggesting that they would've been expanded with more description or action. This novel was intended to be the first in a series assessing the political world stage post-WWII, including both notable events such as Castro's revolution in Cuba and lesser known actions such as the CIA's involvement in the opium trade. Looking back on history was a way for Manchette to present a social critique and explore his socio-political-economic worldview, his thoughts on various economic and political movements. Which view here acts as a parallel to the "thriller" storyline of a munitions-dealing family and the collateral damage of their actions. Manchette always injected politics into his novels, but often left the reader with the feeling that there was much more he would've discussed but for fear of weakening the story. I'm similarly curious how Stieg Larsson would've completed his projected political series that began with The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (in English). Manchette writes women well, especially women of action with fearsome agency. Here our war photographer (think Robert Capa, namechecked herein) nicknamed "Ivory Pearl" (rhymes with "girl") is intriguing and challenging, and if tragically unable to have been fully developed is as compelling as his female protagonists in The Mad and the Bad and Fatale. The ending is a series of paragraphs apparently taken from the author's notes, but it's unclear just how he would've wrapped up the story and if anyone would've lived happily ever after. Ivory Pearl is interesting in its insights into how authors work and what might've been, but is necessary only for someone determined to read everything the French neo-noir author wrote. [3★]
September 14, 2019
As someone who would read an instruction manual for a toaster if it was written by Jean Patrick-Manchette, I am perhaps not the most objective person in reviewing his writing. That being said, as much as I enjoyed large swaths of this story which has many of the trademark Manchette flourishes of insane violence, morally bankrupt and irredeemable characters, and seedy locations, it is not one of his best. That it is not however is not completely his fault as it is a novel he had been working on for years leading up to his untimely death from cancer. While Manchette had completed large sections of the story it is fairly clear that it was a work in progress that had he lived to edit it would have been something quite different.
In general I’m not opposed to posthumous works provided that they are virtually complete and have the author’s blessing before their passing. Despite this story being released by his son, I’m not sure either condition is met here as the story ends very abruptly with about 10 pages of brief sketches from Manchette about how it would have continued.
If you have never read Manchette, certainly do not begin here. “Fatale”, “Three to Kill”, and “The Mad and the Bad” to name three are wonderful example of Manchette in all his manic nihilism. For those who have read him however, “Ivory Pearl” contains enough of Manchette’s trademarks that it is still a fun read that leaves you a little wistful for what might’ve been had he not been taken so early.
In general I’m not opposed to posthumous works provided that they are virtually complete and have the author’s blessing before their passing. Despite this story being released by his son, I’m not sure either condition is met here as the story ends very abruptly with about 10 pages of brief sketches from Manchette about how it would have continued.
If you have never read Manchette, certainly do not begin here. “Fatale”, “Three to Kill”, and “The Mad and the Bad” to name three are wonderful example of Manchette in all his manic nihilism. For those who have read him however, “Ivory Pearl” contains enough of Manchette’s trademarks that it is still a fun read that leaves you a little wistful for what might’ve been had he not been taken so early.
July 20, 2018
Jean-Patrick Manchette's Ivory Pearl is a writer of noir fiction in French. This was his last work which at his death was left unfinished. At the end is a selection of notes on how Manchette planned to wrap up the story. Ultimately, about 5-10% remained.
It is both a noir and a spy novel at the same time, set in various hotspots around the world, mostly in the year 1956, which saw the Algerian revolt, the Hungarian revolution, and the Suez Crisis, as well as the 1956 U.S. presidential election which saw Eisenhower elected to his second term.
Ivory Pearl is the name of the young heroine, a war photographer who decides to take some time off by living in the mountains of eastern Cuba, where Fidel Castro and his forces were planning their takeover of the island.
I liked what I read and regret that Manchette died before he could finish it. This was to have been the first in a series of novels which explains the forty years prior to Manchette's death in 1995, showing that there were interesting connections with political operatives, gun runners, and the like linking incidents widely separated in geography.
It is both a noir and a spy novel at the same time, set in various hotspots around the world, mostly in the year 1956, which saw the Algerian revolt, the Hungarian revolution, and the Suez Crisis, as well as the 1956 U.S. presidential election which saw Eisenhower elected to his second term.
Ivory Pearl is the name of the young heroine, a war photographer who decides to take some time off by living in the mountains of eastern Cuba, where Fidel Castro and his forces were planning their takeover of the island.
I liked what I read and regret that Manchette died before he could finish it. This was to have been the first in a series of novels which explains the forty years prior to Manchette's death in 1995, showing that there were interesting connections with political operatives, gun runners, and the like linking incidents widely separated in geography.
May 16, 2019
Great thriller. Starts with a bang that makes you jump, and keeps you on edge right the way through. Full of pedantic details - obviously well researched. The only criticism I have is that at the end of it, I wondered what the point of it all was. Perhaps that is the destiny of the modern world.
September 23, 2018
This is the first book I've read by this author. Looking forward for his other books.
3* Ivory Pearl
TR Fatale
TR Watchmen
3* Ivory Pearl
TR Fatale
TR Watchmen
March 29, 2021
good read. it’s a shame this wasn’t finished while manchette was alive, because you can really start to see the contours of a type of crime/espionage novel series that’s a great deal more ambitious than his previous work.
like ellroy’s “american tabloid” and delillo’s “libra”, basically anything involving intelligence and cuba in the mid century is so wildly tangled and it takes a long time to get used to the characters, setting, motives, etc. but this hummed right along. i think, if this was not a posthumous work, it would stand right alongside those, if not above.
like ellroy’s “american tabloid” and delillo’s “libra”, basically anything involving intelligence and cuba in the mid century is so wildly tangled and it takes a long time to get used to the characters, setting, motives, etc. but this hummed right along. i think, if this was not a posthumous work, it would stand right alongside those, if not above.
July 22, 2024
Unfinished but very promising, kind of like if Graham Greene or John le Carré wrote a neo-polar. Seems like the unwritten bits were going to dovetail more with the development of the Cuban revolution. Very familiar Manchettian bits and pieces: opening with brutal violence clinically described, there’s a capable and self-interested woman, plus evil but somewhat feckless agencies, precise descriptions of cars and obscure weapons, a showdown out in a rural area, etc. Less doctrinally developed than the other books which is a shame but again maybe something that would have been remedied had the author survived. Shades of that movie Hanna with the Chemical Brothers soundtrack.
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July 10, 2018Manchette’s final, unfinished novel, is an attempt to move beyond the classic hardboiled noir which he mocked/epitomized in his earlier work, in favor of a more overtly political thriller, John Le Carre rather than Jim Thompson. Honestly, it’s hard to say exactly how well he did, since this is really only about half a book, but then, 30 thousand words from Manchette is better than a door stopper from most other writers.
April 3, 2018
Published posthumously in unfinished form this book is nevertheless utterly enjoyable to read. Manchette had a touch for the odd detail that makes his noir fiction engrossing and the characters feel like they've been lifted from the now unclassified page of a intelligence dossier.
July 10, 2018
3,5 Και ενω εχει ολο αυτο τον υπεροχο κοσμο του Manchette απιστευτη μουσικη που σε κανει να θελεις να φτιαξεις και το σαουντρακ και να το ακους τα καλοκαιρινα βραδια...χμμμ! Δεν ειναι οπως η Δυτικη οχθη...Αλλα οπως και να εχει ειναι Manchette και του τα συγχωρουμε ολα ή εστω σχεδον...
June 24, 2018
Love Manchette, but this is very rough and of interest only to utter completists.
October 17, 2018
Kind of going for a left James Bond? Ivory Pearl is sort of a Tintin/Bond/Martha Gellhorn type. I've been thinking that would be a great concept for a while, some kind of antithesis to the tory aesthetic of the Bond films. The novel was unfinished when he died, and it's interesting to see his notes for how he planned to finish the book and continue the series. The novel takes place during the Hungary Revolution of 1956 and Castro's guerrilla in Cuba's Sierraa Maestra in the same year. I'm not sure a series following leftist movements throughout the twentieth century would've held my attention, and the main plot in this one about the CIA-friendly gunrunner to various anti-colonial movements was kind of convoluted (generally people don't kill their young niece when so they can take over their brother's half of the company). Still, Manchette's great with action, and that first scene of the guy with a gun versus the guy with the parang is amazing. You know the knife guy is going to win, but no one walks away clean in a Manchette fight.
October 6, 2025
Gary Indiana's afterword is wonderful for perfectly capturing the essence of Manchette's novels:
“Despite their unrelieved violence, or perhaps because of its antic excess, Manchette’s crime novels are wickedly cheerful, an inexhaustible pleasure to read. They sport characters so hollowed-out and damaged that the adventures they embark on, often unwillingly and unwittingly, peel off whatever squeamishness they possess. If they finish up unimproved or destroyed, it must be noted that they were nothing special to begin with–sleepwalkers of capitalism, basically. But for a time they become compelling, forced to scramble for their lives against monstrous opponents. Frequently ripped from their urban comfort zones and hounded into wastelands of alien wilderness, isolated cabins, rural villages, and the like, reduced to eating berries and raw snake meat, they tap into a resourcefulness that suggests, at least to our imagination, different paths their lives might travel if they ever reach safety. When they’re not dodging assassination, Manchette’s personae listen to West Coast jazz, which indicates at least some dormant inner life” (178).
“Despite their unrelieved violence, or perhaps because of its antic excess, Manchette’s crime novels are wickedly cheerful, an inexhaustible pleasure to read. They sport characters so hollowed-out and damaged that the adventures they embark on, often unwillingly and unwittingly, peel off whatever squeamishness they possess. If they finish up unimproved or destroyed, it must be noted that they were nothing special to begin with–sleepwalkers of capitalism, basically. But for a time they become compelling, forced to scramble for their lives against monstrous opponents. Frequently ripped from their urban comfort zones and hounded into wastelands of alien wilderness, isolated cabins, rural villages, and the like, reduced to eating berries and raw snake meat, they tap into a resourcefulness that suggests, at least to our imagination, different paths their lives might travel if they ever reach safety. When they’re not dodging assassination, Manchette’s personae listen to West Coast jazz, which indicates at least some dormant inner life” (178).
June 17, 2018
Manchette is known for his neo-polars. This last novel -- unfinished at the time of his death, but "complete" with his author notes at the end -- is just as excellent a story as those others that have already been translated into English. It some ways, I like IVORY PEARL a bit more than the others, but perhaps that's not quite fair: the earlier novels are set in France and mostly focus on French characters. IVORY PEARL has an international scope with the volatile world politics of the time -- 1956 -- as a backdrop.
The same staccato delivery and reportage-like descriptions are present in IVORY PEARL, but the characters have a vibrancy that's missing in the earlier works. Perhaps that's because some of the IP characters work on the side of the angels, as isn't always the case in Manchette's earlier noirs. But IVORY PEARL still is a work of noir fiction. We see intelligence gathering by multiple countries, the Algerian revolt, the Hungarian revolt, Castro's revolution, gun running . . . there's plenty going on here. And it's all nicely sewn together in a relatively short novel. If only Manchette had lived longer to give us more books.
The same staccato delivery and reportage-like descriptions are present in IVORY PEARL, but the characters have a vibrancy that's missing in the earlier works. Perhaps that's because some of the IP characters work on the side of the angels, as isn't always the case in Manchette's earlier noirs. But IVORY PEARL still is a work of noir fiction. We see intelligence gathering by multiple countries, the Algerian revolt, the Hungarian revolt, Castro's revolution, gun running . . . there's plenty going on here. And it's all nicely sewn together in a relatively short novel. If only Manchette had lived longer to give us more books.
March 1, 2019
This is an unfinished first novel of a planned trilogy, which I didn’t realize when I picked it up. Gary Indiana’s afterword thoroughly convinced me that the finished project would have been tremendous, but I’m not enough of a Manchette completist nor enough of a connoisseur of noir/neo-noir fiction to appreciate this one on its own terms.
October 30, 2011
Bellissimo purtroppo incompiuto, bellissimo anche perché incompiuto, perché ci strazia il cuore, pensando a JPM...
June 13, 2018
Very enjoyable, too bad the author died before he got a chance to not only finish this story but to realize his vision for a new series of books. Well done, and worth the read.
July 3, 2018
I enjoyed his style - the story not so much. But I do think that it could work as a movie. I do not understand why other readers call this a masterpiece!
October 19, 2022
I really liked this book. It's a really cool blend of crime, spying and politics that takes place across Europe, the US, and Cuba with some links to Algeria. The story in itself is a work in progress, incomplete by the authors untimely death at 53 from Cancer. It was so cool to read an unfinished story. It ended really abruptly, with a few pages afterwards briefly sketching the rest of the story from the author's working notes, and I feel like I got a taste of what the writing process looks like as a process, rather than as a finished product. My favorite setting of this book was the Sierra Maestra mountains, in my favorite bucket-list country, and a place I dream of visiting often. I felt like I was there, running through the trenches with Ivory and Negra, from photographing wild birds to attempting survival on raw snakes. I got a whiff of Doctor Castro's revolutionary spirit here and there, am now extra motivated to dive into some Cuban historical fiction.
July 31, 2024
In Manchette's final noir novel, we follow a young woman who works photographing post-World War II conflicts. Wanting a break from such a strenuous job, she travels to the mountains of Cuba to unwind. Soon, she finds herself at the center of a dangerous scheme, and we follow her as she fights for survival and discovers darker sides to those closest to her.
As a posthumous novel, it was clear this was going to be missing a lot. Despite being incomplete, in his signature gritty form, Manchette still manages to explore themes common to his writing, mainly corruption, power dynamics, and the lengths government will go to maintain order.
If this was complete, I think Ivory Pearl would be riveting. However, even with it standing as incomplete, it still held my interest and continued to propel me on my journey to discover more about the noir genre.
As a posthumous novel, it was clear this was going to be missing a lot. Despite being incomplete, in his signature gritty form, Manchette still manages to explore themes common to his writing, mainly corruption, power dynamics, and the lengths government will go to maintain order.
If this was complete, I think Ivory Pearl would be riveting. However, even with it standing as incomplete, it still held my interest and continued to propel me on my journey to discover more about the noir genre.
November 26, 2018
This would have been quite different if it had gotten finished. Not just that the ending would have gotten written, rather than being several pages of notes, but I'd like to think that a lot of the existing text would have been edited down. As is, it's occasionally somewhat tedious, especially when it's not directly featuring the titular Ivory Pearl, who is totally awesome. In the last third, the tangled threads of the story start to come together into something actually quite exciting, and then, alas, it ends, except it doesn't, really.
Overall, despite the sparkling charm of the main character, the book is mostly of interest as a work-in-progress with great potential, as an example of a step in the creative process.
Overall, despite the sparkling charm of the main character, the book is mostly of interest as a work-in-progress with great potential, as an example of a step in the creative process.
May 6, 2025
Σε σχέση με τα προηγούμενα μυθιστορηματα του Μανσέτ αυτό είναι το πιο ολοκληρωμένο. Αν και δεν πρόλαβε να το τελειώσει ποτέ γιατί πέθανε από καρκίνο έχει πολλή μεστή και ώριμη γραφή. Ξεκινάει μάλλον χαλαρά με διάφορες ιστορίες των πρωταγωνιστές και προς το τελος γίνεται ένα πραγματικό κατασκοπευτικο θρίλερ. Αν και το τέλος είναι μάλλον η μέση πάλι στέκεται και μόνο του χωρις να διαβάσουμε τις σημειώσεις του συγγραφέα. Το πιο πιθανό είναι ότι κάτι θα άλλαζε πάλι. Πολλή ωραία γραφή και ύφος, οι ήρωες είναι βασανισμένες ψυχές που τίποτα δεν τους κάνει εντύπωση και είναι έτοιμοι για όλα.
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