The Independent - London, June 19th, 1995
Jean Genet (1910-1986) wrote a handful of miraculous novels in his late thirties and early forties after a life spent in orphanages, reform schools and, finally, jail. A thief and prostitute from an early age, Genet wrote of a life of vagrancy and crime that turned conventional aesthetics on its head. His stories of pullulating, fetishistic desire between male prison inmates convulsed the likes of Sartre and Cocteau with admiration, and a presidential decree, no less, was signed to release him from the life sentence he was then serving.
In the 1950s he turned to writing plays. He directed a b...
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