With Their Hearts in Their Boots

<p><b>A raucous, macabre tale of failure from the filmmaker-turned-writer whose work has garnered cultish attention in recent years</b></p><p>Georges Maman is a down-and-out actor sinking into despair and no longer able to scrape by, failing to make his mark even in the porno industry; Dagonard is a loudmouthed camera assistant who executes his refusal to read a room with almost surgical skill. Their paths cross one evening in a bar, and the two proceed to share a night in Paris: drink, dinner and psychological torture. Drawing from his own aborted career as an assistant director in the film industry, Jean-Pierre Martinet’s last novel (before he quit writing) describes a sordid, cynical and disturbingly humorous descent into the hell of failure and the company we keep there. <i>With Their Hearts in Their Boots</i> is joined by “At the Back of the Courtyard on the Right,” an equally dark and lengthy poetic essay inspired by the work of Henri Calet, a kindred literary spirit whose dimmed star Martinet helped to resuscitate through his brief career as a literary critic.<br><b>Jean-Pierre Martinet</b> (1944–93) wrote only a handful of novels, including what is largely regarded as his masterpiece: the psychosexual study of horror and madness <i>Jérôme</i>.<br><b>William Boyle</b> is from Brooklyn. His books include <i>Gravesend</i>, which was nominated for the Grand Prix de Littérature Policière in France.</p>