Book description
Airman, war hero, immigrant, law student, diplomat, novelist and
celebrity spouse, Romain Gary had several lives thrust upon him by the
history of the twentieth century, but he also aspired to lead many
more. He wrote more than two dozen books and a score of short stories
under several different names in two languages, English and French,
neither of which was his mother tongue. Gary had a gift for narrative
that endeared him to ordinary readers, but won him little respect
among critics far more intellectual than he could ever be. His varied
and entertaining writing career tells a different story about the
making of modern literary culture from the one we are accustomed to hearing.
Born Roman Kacew in Vilna (now Lithuania) in 1914 and raised by only
his mother after his father left them, Gary rose to become French
Consul General in Los Angeles and the only man ever to win the
Goncourt Prize twice.
This biography follows the many threads that lead from Gary's
wartime adventures and early literary career to his years in Hollywood
and his marriage to the actress Jean Seberg. It illuminates his works
in all their incarnations, and culminates in the tale of his most
brilliant deception: the fabrication of a complex identity for his
most successful nom de plume, Ã mile Ajar.
In his new portrait of Gary, David Bellos brings biographical
research together with literary and cultural analysis to make sense of
the many lives of Romain Gary - a hero fit for our times, as well as
his own.
David Bellos is Professor of French and Comparative Literature and
Director of the Program in Translation and Intercultural Communication
at Princeton University. He is well known for his many translations and
for his biographies
Georges Perec: A Life in Words
and
Jacques Tati
. David Bellos was awarded the first Man Booker International
Translator's Prize in 2005 for his translations of Ismail Kadare's
novels.
