Who wrote the novel, "Lot"?

November 10, 2006 4:31 AM

Has anyone heard of a French novel called "Lot"? The book was mentioned in a John Hughes film (What I have Written) after the novel by John Scott. I've tried Google but no luck.

The book is NOT "The Crying of Lot 49" or " 'Salem's Lot."
There is a chance, though, that the book was written in English. The film shows the cover and is otherwise vague on the subject.

posted by tesseract420 to writing & language (8 comments total)

Pierre Gripari wrote a book called Le 7ème Lot.
posted by jontyjago at 4:48 AM on November 10, 2006

In what context is the book mentioned? Is it definitely a novel? If not, could it be connected in some way with the River Lot & its environs, which are the subject of several French guidebooks?
posted by misteraitch at 5:09 AM on November 10, 2006

I was very confused for a minute, so just to be clear: it's not the John Hughes you're probably thinking of.
posted by jjg at 7:21 AM on November 10, 2006

Seeing as the film is about writers and writing, there's a good chance the novel doesn't exist -- it's just a device used in the story.
posted by jjg at 7:23 AM on November 10, 2006

Might it be referring to Ward Moore's minor classic apocalypse short-story Lot - normally collected into a single book with the follow up story, Lot's Daughter? Not French, I know, but you didn't seem sure if it was definitely French...

Yeah, OK, probably not that.
posted by flashboy at 7:38 AM on November 10, 2006

I searched WorldCat, which as you may or may not know, is a joint catalog for about 41000 libraries around the world.

I searched for "lot" in the title, and limited the results to those in the French language, and those works that are fiction. I only got 17 results, none of which were simply "Lot" or "Le Lot." The most common title seemed to be "Le Gros Lot."

I think I'm with jjg - I'm not sure the book exists outside the film.
posted by rikhei at 8:06 AM on November 10, 2006

jontyjago: Thanks, I'll check this one out, it's too bad chapitre doesn't show the cover.

misteraitch: I'm pretty sure it's supposed to be fiction. Two of the lead characters are discussing the book at a cafe in the film.

jjg: That's interesting. I seem to recall somewhere in the publicity materials for What I have Written that it's the same guy. But maybe not. If they're both Australian, it's the same John Hughes; otherwise, no.

The film was decidedly low budget, and they did show the cover of the book in the film, but very quickly. Any volume would have worked as a prop if the book really doesn't exist, which is why it makes me think that it does.

Thank you all.
posted by tesseract420 at 1:48 AM on November 11, 2006

I suspect you are looking for Lot and Lot's Daughter by Ward Moore.

In these two stories, Moore achieved a startlingly intense and bitter distillation of the bleakest, most depressing variety of 20th century science fiction: the survivor's narrative of post-nuclear apocalypse.
posted by jamjam at 11:36 AM on July 1, 2007