Confessions of Dan Yack — Blaise Cendrars

Continuing the adventures of the eccentric English millionaire Dan Yack, this novel centers on tells the story of the protagonist's tender love for the young Mireille, whom he meets in a crowded tabac in a Paris gone mad on Armistice night, 1918. This love transforms Dan Yack's life -- he abandons his women and gives up his fast cars and debauchery to marry this convent-educated girl of his dreams. To indulge Mireille's fantasies he launches her as a film star by creating films for her and casting her in wraith-like roles inspired by Edgar Allen Poe. But before long Mireille is struck by a mysterious and fatal illness, the psychological origins of which raise disturbing questions about the nature of their relationship. Whereas Dan Yack's previous memoir celebrated his exploits with malicious bravado, this is a bittersweet memoir of love and loss in which the author's typically earthy, reckless surface is shot through with profound melancholy and a palpable sense of psycho-sexual disturbance.