PIERROT MON AMI

by Raymond Queneau ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 21, 1988

A brilliant, quirky novel by a French novelist whose reputation continues to grow in America. Pierrot works at Uni Park Palace of Fun, where he is supposed to place women in dresses on the ""blowhole,"" so that the ""philosophers"" can see their underwear. Wandering off, he meets Yvonne at the Machine Gun Arcade and takes her for a bumper-car ride. There he proceeds to impress her by running over her father, M. Pradolet, the owner of the amusement park. Fired, Pierrot signs on with a fakir whose sideshow specialty is sticking hatpins through his cheeks. Pierrot faints and is fired again. Meanwhile, unrequited in his love for Yvonne, this poetic clown watches his friend, Paradis, steal her away. He philosophizes with various carney figures: LÉonie Prouillot (Pradolet's mistress); a wax-worker who cares for Prince Luigi of Poldevia's tomb (the one property Pradolet needs to complete his dream amusement park). Then Pierrot takes another job as a van-driver for Mamar Circus; his companions are two boozy, cigar-smoking monkeys that eventually lead him back to Yvonne (who still is not interested). Various lost friends and acquaintances are discovered, ending up with LÉonie finding her long-lost lover, Mouilleminche, who has set wheels in motion that destroy Uni Park by arson and place Pradolet into a new theme park, the Chaillot Zoophilic Gardens. Yvonne marries Paradis, and Pierrot walks away a happy man. Queneau is madcap with a purpose; his writings are at once slapstick, philosophical, and intellectual. Here, his difficult writing style is admirably rendered into an invented English by Wright.

Pub Date: March 21, 1988

ISBN: 1564783979

Page Count: -

Publisher: Dalkey Archive (1817 79th Ave., Elmwood Park, IL 60635)

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 1988

Categories: FICTION