First published in French in 1970 by Editions Gallimard, "this novel of atrocity and extreme obscenity is set in the dirt of a majestically tainted zone of the Algerian desert in a time of civil warfare.. and brings scenes of brutal violence into intimate collision with relentless acts of prostitutional sex and degradation." Guyotat writes in a style of stream of consciousness without structured sentences in obscene, harsh, descriptive language. There are no periods ending sentences; only semi-colons, commas and dashes are employed as punctuation marks. The book was banned in France for eleven years. The novel is a collection of phrases. -- Source of annotation: Marvin or Ruth Sackner.