The Good Inn: A Novel by Black Francis, Josh Frank
My rating: 3/5 cats
so frank black wrote a book…
not that one, you nerd!
this one
who proved that once you go frank black, you do indeed go back. to black francis.
okay, enough hilarity.
this book is something else. this is an illustrated book—not a graphic novel—based on a proposed soundtrack score for an as-yet-unwritten feature film about the very first narrative porn film in history, the good inn, of which only a few film frames survive. why does the film no longer exist? read the introduction. or better yet, read the book. because that’s what it’s about, silly.
it is co-written by the man who wrote Fool the World: The Oral History of a Band Called Pixies. is it weird to hang out socially with a guy who wrote a book about you?? do you feel compelled to write a book about him just to even things out? no one knows.
it is illustrated by a cartoonist who did the art for Trompe le Monde and here is what some of the illustrations look like:
and
the book features recognizable historical figures like jacques tati and luis buñuel along with fictionalized amalgams of several different less-famous historical folk who combine to form the actors and other contributors to the good inn. with all the illustrations and the focus on the early days of cinema, it’s kind of a more grown up version of The Invention of Hugo Cabret, more grown-up because boobies:
and carnage:
but it’s also an explosive rollicking adventure alongside a more surreal metaphysical thread and a love story and maybe someone’s head will explode and dalí will yell at a cock and then—many explosions.
it’s a fun read and a beautiful book-as-object, and if you are the kind of person who watches porn for the story, this is your chance to see how it all began! nameless people intercoursing without context?? boring. soldier goes to an inn and meets the innkeeper’s daughter and then they begin intercoursing?? yeah, that’s more like it.
