Papillon

#507
Title: Papillon
Author: Henri Charrière
Translators: June P. Wilson & Walter B. Michaels
Publisher: Perennial
Year: 1970
Country: French Guiana (overseas region of France)
 560 pages

Eh. As long as you understand it's fiction (in the style made famous by A Million Little Pieces) it's interesting enough, though it's picaresque and there's really no developmental self-reflection. There is more insertion into and extraction of objects from the anus than in much pornography. Really, it's enough to make you rethink shaking hands with the guy.

Poor Papillon, who protests his innocence while evincing a startling degree of criminal knowledge and underworld relationships, periodically becomes enraged and spews angry fantasies. Yeah, I'd let him into my house. If you want to see the basis for the movie, read this. If you want to read a prison narrative, there are better, and more true to life.