Jean Genet: Born To Lose: An Illustrated Critical History

Jean Genet: poet-thief, novelist, revolutionary, gay icon. Genet's early life was one of vagrancy and crime. He emerged in 1942 from prison with the extraordinarily subversive novel Our Lady of the Flowers. Championed by Cocteau and Sartre, Genet became a legend to the underworld for his subsequent novels, dark fusions of crime, sex and flowers. In later life he became involved with rebel groups such as the Black Panthers and the PLO.

Born To Lose, poet-novelist Jeremy Reed's stripped-down, amply illustrated biography of Genet, displays profound empathy for its subject. Reed explores Genet's novels, criminal activities, addiction to sleeping pills, relationships with lovers and rent boys, mercurial friendships, fugitive poetry and the obsession with death that underscores his work.