I'm always a little surprised Jean Genet isn't discussed more often these days. This was my first time reading one of his books from start to finish (I've read parts of all of them). While it's a difficult read at times (sometimes I wonder if the translation makes it worse), I'm amazed at how contemporary a lot of it feels - especially his vivid descriptions of what was, essentially, drag culture in the 1930s(ish). The language is digressive, transgressive, convoluted, evocative, often funny, often moving. This description of Darling tells us all we need to know: "There was in his supple bearing the weighty magnificence of the barbarian who tramples choice furs beneath his muddy boots." As do these, about Divine/the narrator: "I was his at once, as if ... he had discharged through my mouth straight to my heart" and "Divine knotted, garroted arteries."
Sartre's introduction (again, over my head in a lot of places) made me see parallels between what Genet does in Our Lady of the Flowers and what we do in contemporary fanfic (create stories to feed our own id, essentially). While I don't profess to follow all of Genet's more abstract passages, I still feel the life and liberation in his subversive, upside down view of the world.
No rating, because the idea of me rating works by someone like Genet or Baldwin seems absurd.