Genet, A Biography by Edmund White

Writer Jean Genet was an isolated individual from the very beginning, according to his biographer. His childhood as orphan and ward of the state helped see to that, even if it was not as harrowing as Jean-Paul Sartre made it out to be in Saint Genet. Although in reading about Genet as a child, one wonders if he didn't spring out from the womb the way he was, given the memories of folks who knew him way back when. The town where he was raised as a foster child, has since slowed into "the sort of village where a dog could fall asleep on the main road if it weren't afraid of getting caught in the rain." But when Genet was growing up, it was bustling, if parochial. He was quite lucky to be raised by tradespeople who lived right next to the school, as opposed to the fate of many children who were billeted with peasants - a harsh and brutal life. Even as a youngster, Genet was described as a dandy who refused to speak the local dialect, clever in school, and a thief - the type who would steal with one hand and blatantly display the spoils in the other.

White takes us through Genet's many life transitions, from runaway, to hoodlum, to prisoner, army deserter, and emerging arist. He argues that Genet cherished all these grimier facets of his psyche as what made him brilliant and special. Which is maybe why he clung to his role as betrayer and outsider much longer than economically necessary. Many of his friends (both artists and criminals) would tell him that he was more skilled as a writer than a thief, and should give up stealing.

But there is something intriguing about the Genet mind-mix, that I felt was typified by the author's account of a stolen Giacometti drawing. It is interesting to note it was removed from the famous sculptor's studio at a time of great friendship between the two. The usually surly Genet had a real admiration and affection for Giacometti, and he knew how much the sculptor prized this particular sketch. Of the two possible suspects, Giacometti only broached the subject of the stolen drawing with one, James Lord, his friend and future biographer. When Lord suggested he ask Genet about it, Giacometti was too afraid, for fear of what the answer might be. Despite this, he was hurt by Genet's subsequent disappearance from his life.

Years after Giacometti's death, the drawing is offered for sale.

"when James Lord mentioned to Genet that the drawing had resurfaced, Genet said 'Yes, Sartre and the beaver [de Beauvoir] wondered how I got it out of Giacometti's studio.' Lord said that Giacometti believed it must have been stolen by either Genet or Lord. Genet: "Then it must have been you."

This is typical Genet: screwy, perverse and kind of charming, I thought.

Anyway, dear biography readers, this is a loooong 'un so be prepared before you set out. Genet's adventures take him through WWII German-occupied Paris to the early 1970s with the the U.S. Black Panthers and to a sympathetic involvment with Palestinian revolutionaries. In the end it got to be a bit much for me - I prefer art to politics. Oh, but that brings me to a good quote from the man himself, written late in his career:

"Claudel as a poet betrays his religion, he makes it go sour. Religion cannot accommodate poets. Poetry cannot serve any ideology. It sticks in the gullet of all systems. Poetry (any action it aims at) unites people, whether they are swine or not. It touches what is in each of us, the thing that makes us resemble one another..."

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