Genet, Jean

Querelle is regarded by many critics as Jean Genet’s highest achievement in the novel—certainly one of the landmarks of postwar French literature. The story of a dangerous man seduced by danger, it deals in a startling way with the Dostoevskian theme of murder as an act of total liberation, and as a pact demanding an answering sacrifice.

“It is awesome, perhaps the finest novel I have ever read in my life. It literally sent shivers through me, the sheer beauty of the language, the exquisite perversity of the imagination, the incredible grasp of motivation—it is his most tightly plotted, best organized, most accessible novel. It is a wonder.” —Dotson Rader