One night in a Parisian nightclub and the aftermath of a marriage provide the stories for these two novels by Frederic Beigbeder, award-winning author of 'Windows on the World'. Both novels, translated into English for the first time here, are narrated by Marc Marronier, a shallow, superficial, rich Parisian who works as an advertising executive, but concentrates much of his energy on frequenting the demimonde of Parisian clubs and bars. It's a world Beigbeder is all too familiar with, and his caustic observations are all the more accurate for it. In 'Holiday in a Coma', Marc Marronier is invited by his old friend, an American DJ, to the opening of a new nightclub called The Shitter (a satirical take on the famous Paris nightclub, Les Bains Douche). Taking place over a single unforgettable night, the novel documents everything from the pit-bull bouncer on the door, to the drugs, cocktails and wannabes who frequent the club. Marc has set his sights on seducing a catwak model -- any one will do -- and is trying to keep a clear head while all around are paying good money to lose theirs. A catalogue of degeneracy, drugs, sex and decibels, 'Holiday in a Coma' is written with a fury and passion that reflect the author's own relationship with a world and he both loves and loathes. In 'Love Lasts Three Years', our hero Marc has just been divorced and -- shallow opportunist that he is -- has decided to write a book about it. He has a theory that love lasts no more than three years, and here -- while recounting the highs and lows of his marriage and taking us through brash nightclubs, vainglorious offices and soulless designer apartments -- he brings to bear the theoretical and the empirical to prove his point. Both frightening and funny, the book reads like a diary: sometimes tender and real, sometimes fantastical and cruel, peppered with Beigbeder's acerbic one-liners and trademark wit.

Holiday in a Coma; And, Love Lasts Three Years: Two Novels

Literature & Fiction

Frédéric Beigbeder

Contemporary

Fourth Estate (GB)

One night in a Parisian nightclub and the aftermath of a marriage provide the stories for these two novels by Frederic Beigbeder, award-winning author of Windows on the World.In Holiday in a Coma, Marc Marronier, a shallow, superficial, rich Parisian who works as an advertising executive, is invited by his old friend to the opening of a new nightclub called The Shitter (a satirical take on the famous Paris nightclub Les Bains Douche). Taking place over a single unforgettable night, the novel documents everything from the pit-bull bouncer on the door, to the drugs, cocktails and wannabes who frequent the club, and Marcs attempts to seduce a catwalk model any one will do. A catalogue of degeneracy, drugs, sex and decibels, Holiday in a Coma is written with a fury and passion that reflect the author's own relationship with a world and he both loves and loathes.In Love Lasts Three Years, Marc Maronnier has just been divorced and shallow opportunist that he is has decided to write a book about it. He has a theory that love lasts no more than three years, and here recounting the highs and lows of his marriage and taking us through brash nightclubs, vainglorious offices and soulless designer apartments he brings to bear the theoretical and the empirical to prove his point. Both frightening and funny, the book reads like a diary: sometimes tender and real, sometimes fantastical and cruel, peppered with Beigbeders acerbic one-liners and trademark wit.

Holiday in a Coma & Love Lasts Three Years: two novels by Frederic Beigbeder

Literary

Harper-perennial

Arrested for snorting cocaine off a car bonnet, award-winning author and quintessential dilettante Frederic Beigbeder reflects on his troubled childhood, while spending a night in police custody.

A French Novel

Fourth Estate

Octave seems to have everything going for him: a good mind, a great job in advertising, a lavish apartment, girls, and a cocaine habit he can afford. But it soon becomes clear that he also has a serious problem with his life. From the moment when he storms out of the offices of a lucrative client after daubing the word `pigs` all over the walls with his own blood things begin to spiral dangerously out of control. `The top men in advertising? They`ve already started the third world war`, he claims. This belief inevitably spurs him on from violent words to violent deeds, stopping at nothing-not even murder. Beigbeder plays the investigative journalist and the philosopher as much as the novelist, and gives us the confessions of a disillusioned child of the millenium. Half fiction, half diatribe, there`s also a great deal of brilliant humour and hilarity in this expose of advertising and universal consumerism. An explosive subject and one of the most caustic authors of his generation make £9.99 a truly unforgettable read.

Was 9.99, Now 6.99 : A Novel

Picador

« Le seul moyen de savoir ce qui s'est passé dans le restaurant situé au 107ème étage de la Tour Nord du World Trade Center, le 11 septembre 2001, entre 8 h 30 et 10 h 29, c'est de l'inventer. »

Windows on the World (in French)

GRASSET

367pages. poche. Broché. Voici un livre qui était attendu au tournant. Pas vraiment pour ses qualités littéraires, mais plutôt parce que Frédéric Beigbeder demeure un phénomène médiatique. Animateur de télévision, éditeur, chroniqueur qui ferait et déferait les réputations. Un phénomène qui avait annoncé son projet : puiser dans l'attentat du 11 septembre la matière à un roman. Windows on the World ne décevra personne. D'abord parce qu'il ne s'agit pas du énième témoignage sur la tragédie des tours jumelles. Mais plutôt de confessions intimes où l'auteur a choisi de retracer à la minute près le petit déjeuner au "Windows on the World" (d'où le titre du livre), restaurant du 107e étage de la tour Nord, entre un père divorcé et ses deux fils. Pour se mettre en situation, l'auteur est monté au restaurant du 56e étage de la tour Montparnasse, "Le Ciel de Paris". De là vont se mêler le destin tragique de cette famille américaine (inventé, réinventé) et l'itinéraire affectif, familial et culturel de l'auteur. Sa généalogie (Amos Wheeler, héros de la révolution américaine), sa grand-mère paternelle, le milieu bourgeois de son enfance, à côté de cet amas de tonnes fumantes se composant de chair humaine. Dans cet exercice de barres parallèles, fourmillant de formules efficaces ("Ma vie est une et #156;uvre où je suis entré sans carton d'invitation"), sans jamais manquer d'émotion ni d'autodérision, il s'agit pour l'auteur "d'aller là où la télévision ne va pas. Montrer l'invisible, dire l'indicible". Et, justement, Beigbeder sait de quoi il parle. -Céline Darner

Windows on the world roman

Фоліо

L'égoïste romantique

Gallimard]

Il arrive toujours un moment où les hommes semblent attendre la catastrophe qui réglera leurs problèmes. Ces périodes sont généralement nommées : avant-guerres. Elles sont assez mal choisies pour tomber amoureux.En 1940, à New York, un écrivain débutant nommé Jerry Salinger, 21 ans, rencontre Oona O Neill, 15 ans, la fille du plus grand dramaturge américain. Leur idylle ne commencera vraiment que l été suivant... quelques mois avant Pearl Harbor. Début 1942, Salinger est appelé pour combattre en Europe et Oona part tenter sa chance à Hollywood.Ils ne se marièrent jamais et n eurent aucun enfant.

Oona & Salinger: roman (French Edition)

French and European Publications Inc

BARBIE

Assouline

Neununddreißigneunzig

Rowohlt Taschenbuch Verlag

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