What do you think?
Rate this book
Journal:
"Jeudi 29 décembre 1966 Aujourd'hui, ces temps-ci, je ne suis probablement sain tout à fait ni de corps ni d'esprit. Je mesure quelque chose comme 1 mètre 75, je pèse à peu près 60 kilogs. Je suis fatigué, j'ai une crise de foie permanente par manque de sommeil et abus de la bière. Les soucis d'argent, et ceux de Mélissa, que je ressens, me pèsent. Je lis Les Pléiades de Gobineau, je trouve ça très agréable, je projette de l'adapter pour la télévision." En 1966, à l'âge de vingt-quatre ans, Jean-Patrick Manchette commence à écrire son journal. Il le tiendra régulièrement jusqu'à sa disparition en 1995. Ce volume regroupe les quatre premiers cahiers couvrant la période déterminante du 29 décembre 1966 au 27 mars 1974 où Manchette décide de vivre de sa plume et y parvient au prix d'efforts sans cesse renouvelés. À la lecture de ces pages, qui nous installent d'emblée dans le secret de son atelier, ce sont les faces cachées du grand écrivain qui se révèlent peu à peu : le travailleur perpétuel, l'intellectuel subtil, le lecteur dévoré par la passion de la connaissance, même sous ses formes les plus impures. Totalement inédit jusqu'à ce jour, le journal de Jean-Patrick Manchette est un texte exceptionnel, non seulement par son ampleur mais par la férocité de son écriture.
656 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2008
15 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.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 of 1 review
April 26, 2020
La vie dans le France pré et post 68 arde vue et racontée par un romancier génial. un plongée ds le quotidien, la création, le cinéma, les espoirs, les débats de ces années là. Passionnant
Displaying 1 of 1 review