{"product_id":"idiocy-9781681379197","title":"Idiocy","description":"\u003cb\u003eAn audacious, unabashedly transgressive memoir about two acts of escape by the author: breaking from his family to seek a freer life in Paris and then, later, deserting the French military during the Algerian War.\u003c\/b\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003ePierre Guyotat was one of the most radical and uncompromising writers of the twentieth century, a literary successor to Sade, Bataille, and Genet whose visceral fictions and bold experiments with language have earned him cult status in France and abroad. \u003ci\u003eIdiocy\u003c\/i\u003e is his searing memoir of coming of age between 1958 and 1962, when he discovered his burgeoning sexuality and aptitude for rebellion--first against his father, whom he escaped to become a writer in Paris, then against the French military authorities as a conscript in the Algerian War. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eGuyotat recounts the atrocities he witnessed first-hand in Algeria, as well as his own harrowing experience of being arrested for inciting desertion and imprisoned in a hole in the ground for three months. Guyotat wields his language like a scalpel, merciless in his exploration of human brutality in all its horrible, granular detail. Yet his generous depictions of camaraderie and friendship are just as unflinching. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eThe winner of the 2018 Prix Médicis, \u003ci\u003eIdiocy \u003c\/i\u003eis an incisive condemnation of violence and colonialism, and a bracing, hallucinatory late masterpiece from a writer hailed by Edmund White as \"one of the few geniuses of our day.\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAbout the Author\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePierre Guyotat\u003c\/b\u003e (1940-2020) was a French writer. In 1960, he was conscripted into the Algerian War, the inhumanity of which would become a recurring theme throughout his oeuvre. He is the author of \u003ci\u003eTomb for 500,000 Soldiers\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eEden, Eden, Eden\u003c\/i\u003e, which was banned in France upon its publication in 1970, and \u003ci\u003eComa\u003c\/i\u003e, which won the 2006 Prix Décembre. In 2018, he was awarded the Prix Femina spécial for lifetime achievement. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cb\u003ePeter Behrman de Sinéty\u003c\/b\u003e grew up in Maine and lives in Paris. He was \u003ci\u003electeur d'anglais\u003c\/i\u003e at the École Normale Supérieure, where he has taught since 2011. His translations include Éric Chevillard's \u003ci\u003eQWERTY Invectives\u003c\/i\u003e and Maël Renouard's \u003ci\u003eFragments of an Infinite Memory\u003c\/i\u003e.\u003cbr\u003e","brand":"New York Review of Books","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":51676288385298,"sku":"9781681379197","price":12.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0831\/4771\/8930\/files\/img_8ebd7e74-1c7a-4ef5-8ee0-1f6f4a6b3bb8.jpg?v=1761052733","url":"https:\/\/surprise-castle.myshopify.com\/products\/idiocy-9781681379197","provider":"Surprise Castle","version":"1.0","type":"link"}