This is Boris Vian's masterpiece. A beautiful mixture of cynicism, romance, social activity (Paris during the late 40's), bittersweet, and dopey at the same time. There will be a new translation of the book coming out in 2001. TamTam Books will be the publisher.

I read this book 15 years ago, it really changed my look to literature, to language to life. I will have the foreword/preface written on my epitaph. it was something like this-forgive my poor translation-"...everything I said is true, because I dreamt about it."

i have the Stanley Chapman translation of Froth in the Daydream. It is a gorgeous book, however the girl who recommended the book to me says that it fares unfavorably to the original, more so than usual for a translation because of Vian's unique punning, slangy style. However, for as I can't read French, it's the next best thing. It is available in England, Quartet books...

A story that confronts us with most of human vices, and the vicious way we deal with other people and with our own fears. Amazing, as I think all Boris Vian's books are, with that little sparkle of fantasy that take us to a parallel world.

The characters lack human traits like compassion and love, and try to fill this gap in their personality, each in their own curel and detached way. The language by which Boris Vian describes this search is affectionate and intense. His parabels and stile of writing are at the same time stumbleingly awkward and grotesquely funny. No book has ever touched and disgusted me more than this one.

This book has been printed in the English translation (by John Sturrock) as "Heartsnatcher", by Quartet Books.

Boris Vian presents us one of his very best books, which relates a surreal portrait of feelings such as care, love, disappointment and nostalgia.

Yes, it's a love story, but it's also much more. L'ecume des jours stays with you forever. I read it while attending French high-school and still keep a vivid memory of different scenes - such as the walls in the appartment growing and getting more narrow, depending on the general mood and atmosphere, or the pianocktail, a piano that spits out drinks that match the tunes... just one advice: take your time while reading it. Each page is worth exploring.

Boris Vian was born in Ville d'Avery in 1920 and spent much of his brief life haunting the jazz clubs of Paris. As a surrealist, he was closely associated with writers such as Queneau and Bataille, but he also knew Sartre and Simone de Beauvoir. As the translator of Van Vogt, he played a major part in rekindling French interest in science-fiction. He achieved instant notoriety with the publication of "J'Irai Cracher Sur Vos Tombes" in 1947, a book which was confiscated by the police and which formed the basis of the much-maligned film "I Spit on your Graves".

Published in the same year, "L'Ecume des Jours" -- or as published in English, "Froth on the Daydream" -- marked the beginning of a radical departure in Vian's career. Superficially a love story exploring the hopes and foibles of untroubled youth, it manages to combine the fantastic, the grotesque and the poignant in a matchless blend. The result is a book which has survived the test of time so well that it seems even more appropriate now than when it was written.

The opening scene shows Colin in his bathroom, carefully trimming his eyelids with a pair of nail-clippers. He lives in an ideal world where mechanical gadgets perform the mundane tasks and where all the best cooks swear by Freud (Clement rather than Sigmund). This utopian paradise is described with an endearing naivety, rendered all the more charming by the improbable characters who float through it, sometimes literally.

Colin's friends, Chick and Lisa, are disciples of the philosopher Jean Pulse Heartre, whose lectures they attend with passionate zeal. When Colin meets a girl named Chloe and decides to marry her, he is so ecstatic that he gives away a quarter of his fortune to Chick and Lisa so that they may also get married. Chick, however, fritters away the doublezoons on copies of Jean Pulse Heartre's works, including "A Bouquet of Belches" bound in coarse-grained morocco and "Choice Before Eructation" printed on an unperforated toilet-roll.

After Colin and Chloe's wedding, the dream begins to turn sour. Colin's favourite cook, Nicolas, grows surly and indolent. Chloe falls ill on her honeymoon and discovers a mutant water-lily expanding in her right lung. Chick spends the remainder of Colin's money on a pair of Jean Pulse Heartre's trousers and a pipe bearing the marks of his teeth. In anger and frustration, Colin slices off the head of an ice-rink attendant and kicks it into a ventilation shaft, suffocating most of the other skaters. The colours of the city start to fade and the landscapes become monotonous and bleak.

When Chloe's illness becomes more serious, Colin is finally forced to seek employment to pay her medical bills. He finds a job in an armaments factory, growing rifle-barrels out of his vital organs while being buried in a mound of soft earth. Unfortunately, he is ill-qualified for the task and can only produce blunderbusses. As Colin and Chick sink deeper into poverty, Lisa runs amok with a heart-snatcher and kills the bookseller who provides Chick with Heartre's books and even the great philosopher himself (his heart is shaped like a tetrahedron). Chick dies at the hands of the police and Chloe ends up in a pauper's grave.

Throughout "Froth on the Daydream", Vian maintains an air of ingenuous implausibility, but the whimsy conceals a darker vein that leaves a slightly bitter aftertaste. His particular skill lies in rendering the totally absurd not merely acceptable but also somehow logical. This novel remains the best possible introduction to literary surrealism as well as one of the very best examples of the art.

One of the best book I ever read. So deeply moving. So deeply romantic. A passion. Two people. One love. One life. The first time I read it I just fell in love with it. The way it's writen is absolutely brilliant. Boris Vian wrote as usual: funny words, funny sentences about such true and real subjects! Love Work War Death

One of the most heart-breaking love story ever...

it is Vian's "American doppleganger", Vernon Sullivan, who wrote this book - no word puns, no language virtuosity, but a drolatic parody of American detective stories from the 50s. The hero is a handsome 20 year old, who is desperately trying to cling to his virginity in spite of the efforts of evil scientists to select and breed beautiful human beings, which leads to embarrassing situations, as you can imagine - or find out!...

The first book from Vian I read was "L'ecume des jours", so I was a bit stunned when I first picked up this book. The style is totally different, far from the surrealism and the pun of the other book. Instead: action , violence and sex in "hardboiled" style, still seasoned with Vian's sarcasm. In fact, Vian wrote it using the pseudonym of Vernon Sullivan, pretending to be just the translator of this book "censored in the US and first published in France". His publisher was looking for an "american" novel, and Vian offered himself to write it, in 14 days; a proof of his ability, an hommage to his beloved America that he never visited , and a violent attack to racism by a jazz fan and performer.

This is a fascinating book, all its back history making it more so, and remarkable to think it was written in 1946.

For its time it is truly shocking and extremely graphic. Even by today's standards it is pretty explicit.

However, for all that there really isn't much to this novel. It only takes a couple of hours to read and as such is a 'pleasant' diversion but the book lacks substance. It only took 10 days to write as a bet and that shows in places. Having said all that it is a worthwhile read and a real eye opener.

Glad I read it, wouldn't go back to it, won't make it onto my all time list but conditionally recommended.

This book is one of most important mile stones in Boris Vian's literal life, and a must read for B.V. fans. The book is banned in many countries because of its direct approach to sexuality and racism. It is a short book and one may read it in couple of hrs, I recommend it to viewers. I dont want to state my personal thought about the book not to effect th readers about the book. My advice would be to read it and attain some knowledge about the life of the writer to have a structural thought for the book

i have read this book in his original native language as well now as in english . Both are terrific . It reads well in english becasue it takes place in the US . Vian was underated ... 5 stars still underrates him

I like this book a lot. I was very different from all the books, I've read from this author but I liked it a lot. And I really appriciate the fact that he was able to change completely his style of writing and pretend being someone else[Vernon Sullivan]. And eventhough the book is written in the style of detective stories of "hard school", the main story is really impressive and not cheap at all. I enjoy it. You can also see that he wrote it on purpose to make the critics even more angry so be prepared at some sexual parts and some slang.