Chum

An allegorical novel in the French literary tradition, and a compulsive page-turner.

Warning! Chum is a sex-obsessed, scatological, deeply offensive, violent, disturbed, grim, funny, and horrific allegory, peopled by predatory sailors, murderous seahags, disillusioned bargirls, one shipwrecked porn star, and a degenerate legion of mentally retrograde alcoholic hicks and inbred grotesques. Based on an unpublished film treatment by Celine, and rooted in the tradition of Rimbaud, Bataille and Genet, Chum is literary absinthe to satisfy the worldly, and scald the uninitiated.

"Chum is something that Kierkegaard, at his most suicidal moment, would feel right a home with." -Andrei Codrescu

Mark Spitzer is the translator and editor of The Collected Poems of George Bataille (Dufour Editions), and author of Bottom Feeder, a novel (Creative Arts). He has translated works by Celine, Genet, Rimbaud, Cendrars and others. He lives in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, where is assistant editor for Exquisite Corpse.