Blues for a Black Cat and Other Stories - Boris Vian

Blues for a Black Cat and Other Stories by Boris Vian, foreword by Louis Malle / ISBN 9780803296091 / 116-page paperback from University of Nebraska Press / new copy, small corner crease

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"Ten avant-garde fables of serious whimsy, ushered in by Older's useful introduction, bibliography, and discography....the collection displays Vian's range from gallows humor to verbal fireworks....Playful and tough, fresh and zany."--Publishers Weekly

"[Blues for a Black Cat] brings back the nimble Vian in a collection of his short fiction, initially published as Les Fourmis in 1949. The work has the unmistakable flavor of the time and place, Claude Abadie's jazz band, the coded and absurdist messages of rebellion, the wistful fables, verbal riffs and goofy anarchic encounters; the mise-en-scene includes an expiring jazzman who sells his sweat, a cat with a British accent and a piano that mixes a cocktail when "Mood Indigo" is played."--Boston Globe.

Boris Vian (1920-59), a trained engineer and jazz trumpet player, was a major literary figure in World War II France. Julia Older is the author or editor of many works. Her stories, translations, and poems have appeared in New Directions, the New Yorker, and many other journals.