Pierre Guyotat’s scathing, anti-authoritarian memoir, ‘Idiocy’

“[Guyotat’s] writing is gorgeous, brutally poetic without pretense or over-aestheticization.... I didn't just read Idiocy, I was captured by it. It is a book that throws off your blinders, that changes you.” —Dodie Bellamy IDIOCY Pierre Guyotat Translated from the French by Peter Behrman de Sinéty Pierre 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. Idiocy 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. Guyotat 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. The winner of the 2018 Prix Médicis, Idiocy is 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." For three days only, Idiocy is available at 25% off. BUY THE BOOK   Events for Idiocy with Peter Behrman de Sinéty Tuesday, October 28, at 7pm ET POWERHOUSE Arena 28 Adams St., Brooklyn, NY 11201 Conversation with Elvia Wilk Get tickets here Tuesday, November 4, at 6pm ET NYU La Maison Française 16 Washington Mews, New York, NY 10003 Conversation with Catherine Malabou, moderated by Selma Laghmara   You are receiving this message because you signed up for email newsletters from NYRB. You can choose the types of mailings you wish to receive: Update preferences   New York Review Books 207 East 32nd Street New York, NY 10016-6305 Not a subscriber? Sign up for our newsletter here. Unsubscribe