Mystery Guest: An Account

"Somewhere out in the woeful constellation of literary comparison, a lonely satellite drifts between remote stars--Ulysses and Mrs. Dalloway, The Stranger and When Harry Met Sally--beguilingly reflecting the distant light of each. Taped to the bottom of that satellite is this perfect little book, a message to extraterrestrial intelligence that says: we are human, heartbroken, grim and funny in our despair, yet hopeful and miracle-prone, and some of us are French." --John Hodgman, author of THE AREAS OF MY EXPERTISE
"I woke up the other morning and started to read this marvelous book. I stayed in bed until I read the last page. I could not for the life of me think of anything in the world I wanted to do but read this book. I am tempted to stay in bed until Gré goire Bouillier produces another one." --Daniel Handler, author of ADVERBS "''Just when you think you''ve thought of everything, '' Gregoire Bouillier writes, ''you forget the book sitting right there on your bedside table.'' This should be that book. It is intelligent, compact, and curious, like a good hunting dog scrambling up a tree." --Gary Shteyngart, author of "The Russian Debutante''s Handbook"
"In "The Mystery Guest," Gregoire Bouillier has been ditched by a girlfriend in the way another man might be abandoned by God: does the universe make sense any more? Paranoid, badly dressed and often drunk, madly hopeful one moment and howlingly distressed the next, Bouillier makes for an unforgettable narrator, and Lorin Stein' s fine and resourceful translation succeeds in capturing the mood of poised hysteria. This book goes a long way toward confirming the truth of what Beckett said: there is nothing funnier than unhappiness." --Benjamin Kunkel, author of "Indecision"