© Dalkey Archive Press, 2012
Mon bel autocar - or My Beautiful Bus in Eric Lamb's English translation for the Dalkey Archive Press - is the fictional reconstruction of a bus trip Jouet took through France in the 1980s. It is a poetic and comic exploration not so much of the scenery as of the eponymous vehicle and its eccentric occupants as observed by an anonymous, eavesdropping narrator. Steered by the serene Basile, the bus makes its way with no obvious fixed destination, taking on board new passengers - enter Puss in Boots, Blaise Pascal, Baudelaire and even Jesus Christ - and letting off others. In the final pages it becomes clear that the book itself is a sort of bus trip, boarded impulsively and carrying its readers to places they could not have imagined.
Editions P.O.L. 2003
Translated into: English
P.O.L. Editeur
33, rue Saint-André-des-Arts
75006 Paris
France
Email: madsen@pol-editeur.fr
Website: http://www.pol-editeur.com