Frédéric Mitterrand is a French politician who served as Minister of Culture and Communication of France from 2009 to 2012 under President Nicolas Sarkozy. Throughout his career, he has been an actor, screenwriter, television presenter, writer, producer and director. Jesse Browner is an American novelist, essayist, and translator. His work has appeared in Nest, Food & Wine, Gastronomica, New York, The New York Times Book Review, and Poets & Writers. His books have been published in the United States, France, Italy, Poland, Germany and the Netherlands.
Praise for The Bad Life An elegant and pensive meditation, largely centering on Mitterand's many friendships, including those with a doomed young aristocrat, an AIDS-stricken American cinephile and the great Catherine Deneuve. There is something ineffably Gallic about Mitterrand's attitude toward the events of his own life: a combination of fatalism, philosophical resignation, unapologetic love of the finer things and a penchant for introspection. --WaPo Movie stars, famous artists, tycoons, powerful politicians--these characters are all present in this stunning book, which is saved from being a celebrity memoir by its moral depth, its beautiful writing and its relentless honesty. Frederic Mitterrand (as his name might suggest) has known everyone of importance, but he approaches every subject with sensitivity and a reckless candor. --Edmund White