Philippe Djian's books are full of references to and quotes from Kerouac, Carlos Williams, Whitman, Carver, Hemingway, Miller, Salinger, to name a few. He's even written a short story as a homage to American poet and novelist Richard Brautigan, after his tragic death by suicide. It was published in the collection Crocodile, in 1989.

Philippe Djian is seen in France as a cult author, who started writing against the more affected style of his literary contemporaries. Since the publication in 1981 of his first collection of short stories, called '50 to 1', which he wrote while he was working night shift in the toll booth of a freeway with very little traffic, a faithful readership has bought book after book, aging with the characters, always eager to revisit their familiar universe.

With fourteen novels and short story collections behind him, the only book of his to be translated into English is Betty Blue. For Philippe Djian, limited access to his work is frustrating, but it's nothing compared with the frustration of being known through the film based on the book: Jean Jacques Beineix's Betty Blue. He explains why to Radio National's Mireille Vignol.

Websites

http://philippedjian.free.fr/

http://perso.orange.fr/mondalire/djian.htm

http://lca.chez-alice.fr/djian.html

Articles that mention Brautigan

"((Djian 1989 Une raison d'aimer la vie|Une raison d'aimer la vie))." Crocodiles Éditions Bernard Barrault, 1989: 13-14.

"Richard Brautigan: Tokyo-Montana Express." Ardoise Paris: Éditions Julliard, 2002: 109-117.

Interviews

Djian pas chiant: Entretien avec Philippe Djian Le Moule à Gaufres n°7, Retombées de Brautigan. Paris : Éditions Méréal, 1993.

Articles about Philippe Djian

The Cult of Philippe Djian

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