I Spit on Your Graves

1946 novel by Vernon Sullivan

I Spit on Your Graves
First edition
Author	Vernon Sullivan (Boris Vian)
Original title	J'irai cracher sur vos tombes
Translator	Boris Vian Milton Rosenthal
Country	France
Language	French
Publisher	Éditions du Scorpion
Publication date	1946
Published in English	1948
Pages	190

I Spit on Your Graves (French: J'irai cracher sur vos tombes) is a 1946 crime novel by the French writer Boris Vian, published under the pseudonym Vernon Sullivan. The story is set in the United States and revolves around a sexual and racial conflict.

Reception

Chris Petit of The Guardian reviewed the book in 2001, and called it "dreamily convincing", elaborating: "A main inspiration would have been the slew of Hollywood movies that opened in Paris after the liberation, identified by the French as films noirs. I Spit... is straight noir, but also a work of liberated imagination after four years of Nazi occupation: heady, abandoned, fevered and lubricious. A fusion of prime US pulp and French sado-eroticism[.]"^[1]

Adaptation

The book was adapted into a film with the same title directed by Michel Gast. Vian had already publicly denounced the adaptation while it was in production, but attended the premiere on 23 June 1959. A few minutes into the screening, he stood up and began to shout out his dissatisfaction with the film, and while doing so he collapsed and died of a sudden cardiac arrest on the way to the hospital.^[2]

References

^ Petit, Chris (2001-08-04). "Big in thrillers". The Guardian. Retrieved 2012-03-01.
^ Boggio, Philippe (1993). Boris Vian (in French). Paris: Flammarion. ISBN 2-08-066734-3.

External links

J’irai cracher sur vos tombes^{[dead link]}, complete text in HTML, public domain in Canada
J'irai cracher sur vos tombes, complete text in PDF, public domain in Canada

Works by Boris Vian

Novels