This is the first major biography of Juliette Gréco, the legendary queen of chanson française. It’s a tell-all about her life and music, relying upon numerous testimonials, photographs, and unedited documents, along with the author’s extensive conversations with Gréco herself.
The book begins with her middle-class childhood on Paris’ left bank and tells of her harrowing arrest by the Gestapo at age fifteen. We follow her in her various incarnations, from the bohemian cafés of 1920’s Montparnasse to Sartre and de Beauvoir’s Saint-Germain-des-Près. There, she meets and collaborates with the leading singers and writers of the day, including Raymond Queneau, François Mauriac and Jacques Prévert. Later, as her career takes off, we are offered glimpses into the life of this legendary figure; her world tours, her television and film appearances (most notably in Otto Preminger's Bonjour Tristesse and Jean Cocteau's Orphée). We explore her friendships with Jacques Brel and Serge Gainsbourg, and also join her in the re-examination of her tumultuous romantic involvements with Philippe Lemaire, Daryl Zannuck, and Miles Davis.