Vernon Subutex 3
A Novel
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- USD 11.99
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- USD 11.99
Descripción editorial
Paris may burn, the world may crumble, but Vernon Subutex shall reign supreme! —The final installment of writer/filmmaker Virginie Despentes’s Man Booker International Prize shortlisted punk-rock trilogy. The basis for the TV series of the same name available on streaming.
As storm clouds gather, portending a final reckoning, ersatz rave-cult leader Vernon Subutex decides to return to Paris. Even if it means leaving behind his disciples. He has to. He’s got a dentist’s appointment.
Back in the city, he learns that an old friend from his days homeless on the Paris streets has died and left him half of a lottery win. But when Vernon returns to his commune with news of this windfall, it’s not long before his disciples turn on each other. Such good fortune does not accord with the principles Vernon has handed down.
Meanwhile, the monstrous film producer Laurent Dopalet is determined to make Aïcha and Céleste pay for their attack on him, whatever it takes and whoever gets hurt. And, before long, the whole of Paris will be reeling in the wake of the terrorist atrocities of 2015 and 2016, and all the characters in this kaleidoscopic portrait of a city and era will be forced to confront one another one last time. In the wake of all this chaos and hate, the question will rise again: After all he’s been through, who is Vernon Subutex? And the answer: He is the future.
Virginie Despentes’s epochal trilogy ends with Vernon Subutex 3—in fire, blood, and even forgiveness. But not everyone will survive to see the dawning of the golden age of Subutex.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
A cultlike group of ravers who left Paris with their reluctant DJ messiah continue to face racism, economic injustice, and sexual assault in this uneven conclusion to Despentes's trilogy. The group's countryside idyll, where Vernon Subutex's transcendent sounds get them "lit up with no need for pharma," is disturbed by dissent over what to do about a fortune left by a recently deceased member. Meanwhile, corrupt film producer Laurent Dopalet is stalking Subutex disciples Céleste and Aïcha, both of whom previously branded him by tattoo as a rapist. To find them, Dopalet hires erstwhile Subutex associate Max, who inadvertently sets in motion a nightmarish scene involving Céleste and a brutal pair of Hell's Angels. In Frankfurt, the devout Muslim Aïcha has been working as a nanny and is pregnant by her employer. This subcultural soap opera unfolds against the aftermath of the Charlie Hebdo massacre, and by the conclusion, the looming specter of terror manifests in sweeping fashion. Throughout, Despentes leans a bit much on cultural conflicts to advance the action, though the characters' affinity for the music and one another remain palpable. This series ender overreaches as sociocultural commentary, but wins as a paean to the power of rock.
