Miracle of the Rose

by Jean Genet

Paperback, 1994

Status

Available

Call number

PQ2613.E53

Genres

Collections

Your library, University of Pittsburgh, Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh

Publication

Grove Press (1994), Paperback, 291 pages

Description

This nightmarish account of prison life during the German occupation of France is dominated by the figure of the condemned murderer Harcamone, who takes root and bears unearthly blooms in the ecstatic and brooding imagination of his fellow prisoner Genet.

User reviews

LibraryThing member poetontheone

Genet's second novel is perhaps the one most directly entrenched in his prison experience. The fluctuation in setting from the boys' penal colony of Mettray to the prison at Fontevrault and the narrator's darting focus between his changing lovers and his mystical reverence for Harcamone make this

novel somewhat messier than Our Lady of the Flowers or The Thief's Journal, however. Despite that, the passages dedicated to Harcamone's power, beauty, and mystical ascension are some of Genet's most beautiful and powerful writing. A thoroughly rewarding if slightly erratic narrative.

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LibraryThing member jonfaith

The miasma of history readily befuddles me. It leaves me stranded and confused. That said, sometime in the last century a friend told me something. In her words, I needed to get rid of those gay books and listen to Eminem. Not usually falling prey to suggestions for life changing elements, I did in

this case. I listened to the hip hop artist's first two albums a number of times. I don't like hip hop, but i am from Detroit. I wasn't excited by the music. I couldn't tell if it all was a marketing ploy to snare the angst of the alienated: a meaner grundge with intent to straddle the racial divide. Most of all, I felt really sad for Mr. Mathers. Giving expression to such ideas of revenge has to stem from an unpleasant place. So I gather in my amateur analysis. There are signs of damage.

Such was largely my response to the Miracle of the Rose. The accounts drift into dreams and what emerges is bruised and ugly, despite the images of flowers, birds and birth. The novel was painful to absorb. I felt myself unable to find purchase. I kept slipping in the misery of abuse and betrayal. Genet's need to for acceptance in the "womb" of the institution and prison proved difficult to bear. I quickly admit that it was relief to finish the book.

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