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Rating: 
Summary: A surrealist documentary
Review: This book is an interesting experiment, partly a Surrealist documentary, it brings chance into the fairly predictable realm of history/autobiography. George Melly missed the Paris heydey, but did manage to meet and get to know various figures associated with the Surrealists. Moreover, Melly learned the history of Surrealism, and attempts to weave this history into a meaningful journey - much like the random journeys down the back-alleys such as the Surrealists enjoyed. Yet, the narrative itself is only partially worthwhile. If Melly was perhaps a larger figure in the history at hand, his story would gain in importance. As it stands, however, his tale remains one man's description of his brush with fame. The story is interesting only as a way of contextualizing the history.
The other "half" of the book revolves the black and white photographs contributed by Michael Woods. These images show a Paris relatively unchanged from the Surrealist era. That is, one sees objects and images similar to what Breton, et. al, may have seen, and, occasionally, one glimpses places and structures that are indeed what the Surrealists saw. Again, these images are an interesting way of contextualizing the history.
What is interesting about the book, however, is the way that the images and writing interacts. There is a deliberate attempt to juxtapose the two, yet there remains an element of chance in the success of these attempts. At times one has a Joycean epiphany, at others one is left to try and decide how these disparate objects intersect, if they intersect at all.
As an addition to a library on Surrealism, Surrealists, or 20th century Paris, this book may be worthwhile. I would not recommend it, however, as a primary source for understanding the movement of or the people involved in Parisian Surrealism.
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