Pierre et les Américaines

Gary’s second preface, following the one he wrote for Jacques Guillaume’s book on Raphaël Matta, the “real-life double” of Morel in Les Racines du ciel.

As the publisher’s insert explains, Gary’s “preface-letter” “breaks with the literary tradition whereby the preface-writer praises the author and his work”: Gary, who after ten years spent there has come to be regarded as a keen observer of American society, acknowledges that the book is “amusing and altogether charming (…),” but “simply finds frightening this kind of vivisection, this very skillful handling of the scalpel, this neutral and objective manner,” to the point that he thinks the author “should be subjected to a thorough psychological examination and pinned up at the Musée de l’Homme for the edification of our youth.”