Paris in the 1990s. A man, Robert Giraud (1921-1997) aka Bob, is walking through the streets at night. He stops by a lit door and steps into a café the way one steps into a new life. At the time while honest folks are asleep, he haunts the district of Saint-Germain-des-Prés, from the place Maubert, to the rue Mouffetard and Les Halles, asking for news from ex convicts, homeless people, prostitutes, tattooed guys and small time crooks. Both actor and witness, he haunts the streets of Paris with the eye of a natural scientist, gleaning material for his work as MacOrlan, Carco, Fargue and Brassaï had before him.
Bob came to Paris from Limoges after the war and never left the Parisian streets again. A friend of Doisneau, with whom he shared his love of nocturnal wanderings, and of Prévert, he published Le Vin des rues (Denoël) in 1955. Le Vin des rues became a legendary work, a unique text at cross between the documentary and the poem. Poet, chronicler, novelist, lexicologist, collector, Robert Giraud has written over thirty books, yet strangely, he has remained unknown, his work largely unrecognized.
Olivier Bailly’s book offers the lively and poetic biography of Giraud as a writer focused on the unusual aspects of existence and able to draw the most fascinating portrait of a part of Paris that has now disappeared.
Olivier Bailly was born in 1963. Before he became a journalist, he trained as a hair dresser and worked as a librarian. His regret is that he never was able to have a drink with Monsieur Bob. Monsieur Bob is his first book.
L'auteur
Olivier Bailly est né en 1963. Journaliste depuis plus d’une dizaine d’années dans la presse écrite et maintenant sur Internet, il a été apprenti coiffeur et libraire. Il regrette de n’avoir jamais bu avec Robert Giraud. Monsieur Bob, qu’il qualifie de récit...
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