The Lord of the Barnyard
The story of Tristan Egolf, a punk-rock frontman who wrote the great American working-class novel of the 1990s about a mythical Midwestern garbage strike.
His handwritten manuscript was discovered by Nobel Laureate Patrick Modiano.
Published in French by Gallimard, Egolf’s novel became a global sensation — everywhere except America.
In December of 1993, when Tristan Egolf arrived in Paris at the age of 22, he had only a hundred dollars in his pocket, three books, and a manuscript. In his notebook, an address on the rue Carpeaux belonging to a friend from Philadelphia. A friend he’d made in college — he’d spent just one semester at Temple University before taking a job as a projectionist in a movie theater. That friend, James Porter, was attending art school downtown. The two met at a party hosted by a common friend and found they both loved Werner Herzog’s films. Above all, in James’s telling, they liked that they agreed on nothing: none of the movies they saw together, none of the books they exchanged. “Tristan had no inhibitions, youth was the alibi for our arrogance. We didn’t give a damn about anyone or anything.” James showed an interest in restoring buildings. Tristan in literature. He would sit all night reading in his empty bathtub, James remembers. He claimed it was the best place to focus. After …
