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Pascal Garnier
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How's the Pain? [Editions Gallic] Paperback – December 1, 2020

by Pascal Garnier (Author), Emily Boyce (Translator), John Banville (Introduction)
4.2 4.2 out of 5 stars 146 ratings
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How's the Pain? is an off-kilter, blackly comic novel about an unlikely duo of a soon-to-be-retired assassin and a deadbeat young man, from the 'slyly funny' [Sunday Times] Pascal Garnier.

'Deliciously dark ... painfully funny' New York Times 

Death is Simon's business. And now the ageing vermin exterminator is preparing to die. But he still has one last job down on the coast, and he needs a driver.

Bernard is twenty-one. He can drive and he’s never seen the sea. He can’t pass up the chance to chauffeur for Simon, whatever his mother may say. As the unlikely pair set off on their journey, Bernard soon finds that Simon’s definition of vermin is broader than he’d expected ... 

Veering from the hilarious to the horrific, this offbeat story from master stylist Pascal Garnier is at heart an affecting study of human frailty.

Previous page
  1. Print length
    176 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Publisher
    Gallic Books
  4. Publication date
    December 1, 2020
  5. Dimensions
    5.25 x 0.5 x 7.75 inches
  6. ISBN-10
    1910477923
  7. ISBN-13
    978-1910477922
  8. See all details
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Editorial Reviews

Review

Praise for Pascal Garnier 

'At once extremely violent, irresistibly funny, and inexplicably moving, in the subtle way that only genuine art can manage to be' John Banville, New York Review of Books

'Garnier's take on the frailty of life has a bracing originality' Sunday Times

‘Small but perfectly formed darkest noir fiction told in spare, mordant prose … Recounted with disconcerting matter-of-factness, Garnier’s work is surreal and horrific in equal measure’ The Guardian

'Wonderful ... properly noir' Ian Rankin

'Garnier plunges you into a bizarre, overheated world, seething death, writing, fictions and philosophy. He’s a trippy, sleazy, sly and classy read' A. L. Kennedy 

'Combines a sense of the surreal with a ruthless wit' The Observer 

'Tense, strange, disconcerting and slyly funny' Sunday Times 

'A brilliant exercise in grim and gripping irony, it makes you grin as well as wince' Sunday Telegraph 

'A mixture of Albert Camus and JG Ballard' FT 

'Bleak, often funny and never predictable' The Observer 

'A master of the surreal noir thriller – Luis Buñuel meets Georges Simenon' TLS

‘A jeu d’esprit of hard-boiled symbolism, with echoes of Raymond Chandler, T.S. Eliot and the Marx Brothers’ Wall Street Journal

'Brief, brisk, ruthlessly entertaining . . . Garnier makes bleakness pleasurable' NPR

 'Ennui, dislocation, alienation, estrangement – these are the colours on Garnier’s palette. His books are out there on their own: short, jagged and exhilarating' Stanley Donwood 

About the Author

Pascal Garnier, who died in March 2010, was a talented novelist, short story writer, children’s author and painter. From his home in the mountains of the Ardèche, he wrote fiction in a noir palette with a cast of characters drawn from ordinary provincial life. Though his writing is often very dark in tone, it sparkles with quirkily beautiful imagery and dry wit. Garnier’s work has been likened to the great thriller writer, Georges Simenon.

Emily Boyce is a translator and editor. She was shortlisted for the French Book Office New Talent in Translation Award in 2008, the French-American Translation Prize in 2016, and the Scott Moncrieff Prize in 2021. She lives in London.  

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Gallic Books; Reprint edition (December 1, 2020)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Paperback ‏ : ‎ 176 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1910477923
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1910477922
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 2.31 pounds
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.25 x 0.5 x 7.75 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.2 4.2 out of 5 stars 146 ratings

About the author

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Pascal Garnier

Pascal Garnier

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Pascal Garnier was a talented novelist, short story writer, children's author and painter. From his home in the mountains of the Ardèche, he wrote fiction in a noir palette with a cast of characters drawn from ordinary provincial life.

Though his writing is often very dark in tone, it sparkles with quirkily beautiful imagery and dry wit. Garnier's work has been likened to the great thriller writer, Georges Simenon. His noirs are published in English by Gallic Books.

Praise for Pascal Garnier:

'A brilliant exercise in grim and gripping irony, it makes you grin as well as wince.' The Sunday Telegraph

'Often bleak, often funny and never predictable.' The Observer

'Garnier's take on the frailty of life has a bracing originality.' The Sunday Times

'For those with a taste for Georges Simenon or Patricia Highsmith, Garnier's recently translated oeuvre will strike a chord.' The Independent

'This is tough, bloody stuff, but put together with a cunning intelligence.' The Sunday Times

Customer reviews

4.2 out of 5 stars
4.2 out of 5
146 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

Martina A. Nicolls
5.0 out of 5 stars Masterful study of human frailty
Reviewed in the United States on September 3, 2018
Verified Purchase
How’s the Pain? is set in France, near Lyon. Simon Marechall, aged 60-ish, has a vermin extermination business. He needs a driver to take him to the coast for two days, and hires 22-year-old unemployed Bernard Ferrand, who looks after his mother. Bernard is the type of person who cares for anyone needing assistance, even if they don’t know that they do. He is innately kind and caring. He doesn’t know that Simon is dying, but he senses that he is unwell, and is worried about him.

Bernard likes Simon – Simon ‘had treated him like a man, like a son almost.’ But Bernard meets Fiona, and feels guilty that he is neglecting Simon.

Simon is in pain. A lot of pain.

This novella is about death, in the tradition of French noir. And in the tradition of road trips. Sparsely written, it is also a masterful study of human naïveté and frailty.
2 people found this helpful
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Reader in D'town
4.0 out of 5 stars unexpectedly enjoyable ride
Reviewed in the United States on August 31, 2014
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I hadn't read many from this European noir genre, so I did not know what to expect from garnier. It was noir with a comic touch loved it.
One person found this helpful
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Medic
5.0 out of 5 stars Dark, captivating, funny
Reviewed in the United States on March 19, 2022
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A tautly written book, presented in short chapters. This fateful tale of a dying hitman and his final journey with a “half wit” assistant and his newly found lover and her baby will grip you to the end.
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melaniedubose
5.0 out of 5 stars Dark, funny, and unpredictable.
Reviewed in the United States on January 9, 2018
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I love Pascal Garnier. I love the attitude in the books. The books are unpredictable and the characters are always interesting.
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kegraham
5.0 out of 5 stars Original and compelling
Reviewed in the United States on August 30, 2014
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Dark tale of the relationship between an aging Assassin and a simple young man. The first chapter sets up with ending and the rest is told in flashback. Brilliant.
2 people found this helpful
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susan lomanno
5.0 out of 5 stars good writing
Reviewed in the United States on April 18, 2019
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Good writing
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Stephen Arcese
1.0 out of 5 stars One Star
Reviewed in the United States on December 18, 2014
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Not very good, a waste of my time.
One person found this helpful
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Bruce Russell-Jayne
2.0 out of 5 stars Maybe I Just Don't Like Noir
Reviewed in the United States on April 25, 2016
Well written, but bleak, sad, violent. Couldn't identify with any of the characters. Doen't have the currency of modern noise like "American Crime."
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Top reviews from other countries

Eileen Shaw
5.0 out of 5 stars Jean-Pierre Bornay's last message to his wife...
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on July 15, 2015
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Another in the series of delightful crime noir books by the French writer Pascal Garnier, this has all the best of Garniers amazing writing features. The book has a spare narrative, not a word out of place, a pitiless trajectory and some wonderful characterisation. Not forgetting the skills of the translater, another brilliant job by Emily Boyce. The only sadness is that Garnier died in 2010. The title is a strange African greeting which assumes there is pain without end for everyone.

PGs work is unlike anyone else – and there is pain, amusement and shock aplenty for anyone reading this dark noir novel which is, in the manner of his other books, a profoundly guilty delight. When Bernard tells his mother that he has a commission to drive a man to another city she assumes his employer is a Gay man, in pursuit of her unworldly son but her suspicions are unfounded. The man who has offered this commission is in fact an underworld killer, and Simon has two or three jobs to complete. Anais, Bernard’s mother will undergo her own epiphany before becoming a victim in a quite different sense. Along the way they will, courtesy of Bernards gallantry, wind up in a seaside town along with Fiona and her baby Violette

How can one describe this brilliant scenario – go back to the first chapter and read it again, and it all slips delightfully into place. What a beautiful, violent surprise, and a completely satisfactory ending. I’m betting you will love it as much as I do.
2 people found this helpful
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Little Bookness Lane
4.0 out of 5 stars The absurdity of events quickly separates this one from the crowd.
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on January 31, 2018
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*Actual rating: 4.5 / 5 ***

Each and every offering from Pascal Garnier has a unique personality, and this one is no exception. Although the individuality of each tale is quite remarkable, the absurdity of events quickly separates this one from the crowd and it’s now one of my favourites.

By acquainting a creature of habit with a curious stranger, an unremarkable young man is naively herded into accompanying a veteran ‘pest controller’ to honour a final contract before his imminent retirement.

During a short, but eventful, road trip their odd partnership carves unexpected opportunities for the young man. Even as his ailing employer’s affairs are concluded he finds his obligation to him is not, and their parting that must be executed with the utmost precision.

It’s completely outlandish, yet serenely delivers continental class, as it expands the boundaries of an obscure alliance.
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AK
5.0 out of 5 stars Entertaining French novel on contract killing and surprising apprentices
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on December 3, 2014
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The book is probably going to be termed noire for being both French and for revolving around the crime genre. And while this is a simplification and not strictly correct, it is the easiest pigeon-hole to place it in. The author has long been known as a spiritual successor to Georges Simenon and while there is no detective in sight, and there are many humorous elements included, one can definitely see the connection.

So you get an assassin at the end of his career, a young, naive adolescent looking for a father figure, his alcoholic mother, a young mother with a baby picked up in a random town after a fight with the child's father and an elderly Belgian taxidermist spinster looking for a relationship being thrown together over a couple of eventful days. Given the mix between the seriousness of the assassination business and the frankly bizarre and downright funny moments elsewhere, the style has been termed gris (grey) by some - and with good reason.

You could compare it to  Leon [DVD] [1995 ] with much more humour, or to something from Elmore Leonard with a French twist. In any case, it is a well flowing easy read, entertaining and partially shocking at the same time, and probably quite typical for the author (so if you liked his other works...). If you want a bit of weird mixed with noir / gris French crime fiction, you will certainly enjoy the book.
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John Gonzaga
3.0 out of 5 stars Euro Nihilism-chic
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on March 31, 2016
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Off-kilter in a way that I'm not sure would work with a British crime novel. There was a slight feeling of surreal/nightmare about it all, and in its dislocation reminded me of the Gérard Depardieu film 'Going Places' from 1974. It was good in places but left me feeling slightly unsatisfied.

Anyone in search of some good Euro crime should try  ] which is a rare Czech Republic based crime thriller.
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Igor Zap
4.0 out of 5 stars A Gallic Gem
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on February 15, 2013
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I romped through this comically trenchant novella as if I were devouring a bowl of French onion soup, impossible not to woof it down in one go. It refuses to be genre defined but pays homage to the noir origins of American hardboiled fiction of the 1930s and 1940s. One can hear the influence of Raymond Chandler in the beautiful pared down prose, but the cultural references are decidedly Gallic. Emerging from a simple straightforward narrative, the main protagonists interlock against a background of supermarkets, service stations and campsites. Mostly, we see the story through the ironic gaze of Simon, the washed up assassin, and with it come instances of stark violence that not only surprise but also delight with lashes of mordant wit. The surreal tendency makes this a literary work rather than a plot driven crime story, but with diamond bright prose allied to a superb translation, it leaves one in no doubt that this is a French gem par excellence.
7 people found this helpful
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