I Spit on Your Graves

Im going to spare you all the pretense that this is a great book for its structure, narrative, theme, subtext, etc (the usual literature hype) its a classic book about a classic topic, REVENGE. A black man who can pass as white performs the horrid to correct the wrongs he has been dealt (and his brother). If you wanna read a psychological thriller then read this. The nay sayers seem to be under the assumption that there are more realistic books written about the topic or perhaps they themselves have published something better and see fit to rate it so poorly.

When Jean d' Halluin first published I Spit On Your Graves in 1946, he was looking for a bestseller to kickstart his new imprint, Editions du Scorpion. Written by an African-American writer named Vernon Sullivan, the book was a visceral, often misogynistic, and (once it gets rolling) violent pulp novel offering a gritty commentary on racial injustice in the United States. The plot centered on Lee Anderson, a light skinned black man seeking revenge for the murder of his brother at the hands of whites. Anderson, takes his revenge by infiltrating southern society as a white man (he has light skin and blond hair), bedding every white woman he can, and ultimately selecting two of those women to murder as payback for his brother's death. Despite being considered too controversial and subversive for U.S. publishers, the French public devoured the novel. By 1947, it outsold work by Sartre and Camus, giving d' Halluin the bestseller he craved. That alone would've made for interesting literary history. But there was more to the story... Vernon Sullivan never tried to have the book published in the United States. Vernon Sullivan did not exist. I Spit On Your Graves was in fact written by a Frenchman. A white Frenchman. Said Frenchman had never actually visited the United States. Then there was the law suit filed against the author by Cartel d'action sociale et morale, the same right wing organization that tried to censor the work of Henry Miller. Last but not least, there was the grisly murder committed by a Parisian man who strangled his mistress. The authorities discovered a copy of I Spit On Your Graves at the scene of the crime with a part where Lee Anderson dispatches one of his victims circled. Hence its bestseller status. Who didn't want to read the "murder book," as the introduction Marc Lapprand calls it? And then of course, there was the bigger question: what if the book was not about racial injustice at all? On the surface, I Spit On Your Graves is a pulpy, not expertly written tale of murder and sex. And upon first reading, I Spit On Your Graves comes across as that - a cheap pulp mystery, lacking only the cover illustration of a woman screaming, hands raised against her face, as an unseen stalker comes at her with a knife. It is overflowing with graphic sex (for it's time) where Lee takes the female characters in every scenario imaginable (barring midgets and donkeys). At first one would take it as a sub-par Tropic of Cancer, except that the reader's knowledge of Lee's racial identity gives the book a taboo that is non-existent in Miller's novels. Lee gets his hands on every white woman he possibly can, and they are all to willing to be taken, even if they don't admit it at first (as is the case with Lou Asquith). As Lee relates early on in the story, "I had all the girls, one after the other, but it was a bit too easy, it turned my stomach." It comes off like a line from a 70s Blaxploitation film. And in many ways, I Spit On Your G

i have read this book in his original native language as well now as in english . Both are terrific . It reads well in english becasue it takes place in the US . Vian was underated ... 5 stars still underrates him

The first book from Vian I read was "L'ecume des jours", so I was a bit stunned when I first picked up this book. The style is totally different, far from the surrealism and the pun of the other book. Instead: action , violence and sex in "hardboiled" style, still seasoned with Vian's sarcasm. In fact, Vian wrote it using the pseudonym of Vernon Sullivan, pretending to be just the translator of this book "censored in the US and first published in France". His publisher was looking for an "american" novel, and Vian offered himself to write it, in 14 days; a proof of his ability, an hommage to his beloved America that he never visited , and a violent attack to racism by a jazz fan and performer.

Boris vian was the lightest spirit of the french thinkers. This book sarcastic to death can reveal such aspects of life and human behaviour that you remain breathless.