Speaking East: The Strange and Enchanted Life of Isidore Isou - Hardcover

by Andrew Hussey (Author)

A vibrant account of both the sensuous cultural scene of postwar Paris and the life of an alluring icon of modern art.

Isidore Isou was a young Jew in wartime Bucharest who barely survived the Romanian Holocaust. He made his way to Paris, where, in 1945, he founded the avant-garde movement Lettrism, described as the missing link between Dada, Surrealism, Situationism, and May '68. In Speaking East, Andrew Hussey presents a colorful picture of the postwar Left Bank, where Lettrist fists flew in avantgarde punch-ups in Jazz clubs and cafés, and where Isou--as sexy and as charismatic as the young Elvis--gathered around him a group of hooligan disciples who argued, drank, and had sex with the Parisian intellectual élite. This is a vibrant account of the life and times of a pivotal figure in the history of modern art.

Author Biography

Andrew Hussey was formerly dean and professor at the University of London in Paris. He has written for the New Statesman, Observer, and New York Times, and his books include Paris: The Secret History and The French Intifada. He lives in Paris.