Blues for a Black Cat & Other Stories

I suspect that I'm missing a lot of the wordplay in the transition to English but it was frequently funny with many sardonic observations. Vian played with the conventions of Storytelling and many of the stories finish with a pleasing sting in the tale. The title story 'Blues for a Black Cat' is at once charming and brutal while 'Journey to Khonostrov' is a bit like Pinter in its silent character who provokes the barbarism of a group when he refuses to observe the conventions of conversation. 'Dead Fish' was maybe the most bizarre and affecting with a pathetic tale of a man who fishes for brains and contends with an intimidating boss while living in a hole and gaining succour from an unidentified 'living thing'. 'The Plumber seemed a show more weaker story with lots of technical detail as in some other stories and I wasn't sure if this was for comic effect as in some absurd literature or just a reflection of Vian the Engineer. Anyway it had me longing for the more surreal lines in the book like 'It was raining octopi'. Overall then, the book was to my taste in its bizarre characters and incident but I didnt enjoy absolutely every line of it. show less

Boris Vian (1920-59) led a rather too short life on this earth. But, within that 39 years, he wrote 10 novels, 42 short stories, 7 theatre pieces, 400 songs, 4 poetry collections, 6 opera libretti, 20 short story and novel translations. He was praised by stalwarts like Jean Paul Sartre, Louis Malle and Eugene Ionesco. His novels range from metaphysical fantasies to hardcore potboilers. “Blues for a Black Cat” is probably his only short story collection translated into English.

This anthology, consisting of 10 brilliant short stories, provides a perfect introduction to the world of Vian—a world full of feverish imagination and uncouth happenings. To give an idea, let me cite one or two examples—in these short stories, you’ll show more find a musician who earns his living by selling his sweat, a cat which has a distinct British accent, and a group of people travelling in train who brutally torture a fellow-traveller for not being talkative enough. In short, it is an explosion of unrestrained imagination which leaves the reader gasping for breath.

But, are these short stories nothing but fantasies, mere spurt of fretful daydreaming, full of clever wordplays and creative juggleries? Sorry, I beg to differ. Through these brilliant fireworks of Vian’s imagination one cannot fail to notice a gloomy world, full of pain and suffering. Vian repeatedly highlights the absurdity of our existence—an existence blighted by oppression, terror and helplessness. That’s why, Vian’s characters are so much plagued by unruly gadgets, brutal superiors or heartless fellow creatures. Also, Vian’s radically transgressive logic hints at the basic irrationality of the world surrounding us. His attitude is quite similar to that of Beckett or Ionesco, but more playful and a lot more mischievous. His scathing black humour reveals the raging mind behind all the apparent fun and fanfare.

Here, I want to specially mention the story “Pins and Needles”, a vitriolic analysis of a war-ridden era. Though one can safely assume that the story describes the landing of allied force in France, the incidents actually take place in an ambiguous time and space. As a reviewer aptly puts it—
“The unstable, shifting nature of Vian's prose—alternating here between deadpan serious and craftily naive—perfectly captures the confusion of the battlefield, rendering the horrendously violent subject matter as black humour of a deeply chilling variety. More than a parody of battlefield horrors, unnerving enough as that may be, the story turns one of the most hallowed battles of recent history into an absurdist melange of death, dismemberment and pain, signifying nothing. An excerpt: "We got behind the tank. I went last because I don't have much confidence in the brakes of those contraptions.... But I don't like the tank's manner of reducing corpses to a pulp with the sort of noise that's hard to remember--at the time you hear it, though, it's pretty unmistakable."”

“Pins and Needles” is probably the best anti-war story I’ve come across, painstakingly revealing the absurdity of war and its meaninglessnes.

Due to his abhorrence to the Cartesian logic of “Cogito Ergo Sum”, Vian became interested in Pataphysics and, as a reviewer rightfully says, “Blues for a Black Cat” betrays “Vian's Pataphysical sensibility and love of language play”. Above all, Vian’s stories are much too funny to be carelessly laughed at. show less

Had to force myself to finish this one. It often felt like what we'd come up with in high school language classes, thinking we were clever with odd or otherwise-nonsensical combinations of words and situations. Most of any social critique/parody got lost in the surreal-ishness.

A portuguese translation of the french original Les Fourmis, this book of surrealist short stories is a delight. Two of the stories, "As Formigas" and "Blues Para Um Gato Preto", are truly wonderful.

Favorite story: Dead Fish. It was absurd and heartbreaking.

Toujours aussi bon

Comme dans toutes nouvelles, certaines séduisent plus que d'autres. On y retrouve néanmoins tout le mordant, l'humour et la violence de Vian. On retiendra plus particulièrement la force douloureuse des Fourmis et l'humour érotique de L'amour est aveugle.