The Last Genet: A Writer in Revolt

Laroche's exhaustive research provides a historical framework for examining Jean Genet's later non-fiction work, particularly Prisoner of Love, and the ways in which his political ideals and experiences shaped his worldview. Laroche focuses specifically on Genet's involvement with Germany's Red Army Faction, the Black Panthers in the United States, and the Palestine Liberation Organization. The disenfranchisement of these three groups led Genet to ask difficult questions about philosophy and linguistics. Among these was the distinction between brutality and violence, the former representing attacks by the oppressors against the oppressed, and the latter being the necessary acts of retaliation taken by the disenfranchised. Genet makes a similar argument concerning murder and assassination. Speaking on behalf of Black Panther George Jackson in 1971, Genet wrote, "I have come to that part of my speech where, to help save the blacks, I am calling for crime, for the assassination of whites." Genet ties these groups together with language, noting, "The Black Panthers and the Palestinians...all have fought windmills: windmills of racist language and the fear that follows it." He discusses the difficulties of an oppressed minority when working within the same spoken language of its oppressors. Read alongside the primary texts, this book is a helpful supplement, but the point may be lost on less ardent fans. (Nov.)