L’amour à voix haute (Love at Full Volume) is an interesting anthology on two counts, both for Roland Topor’s distinctive artwork but also because he introduces the extended poem as a compilation of all the things that he has experienced lovers saying in bed. Thus it may be the closest we get to his personal experience of sexual intimacy.

These scrupulously recorded conversations, comments and confidences, are as philosophical as they are absurd, as amusing as they are unexpected. Roland Topor has taken on the role of scribe of amorous acts, collector of fragments of intimacy, of indiscreet words which slip between the sheets. Published in the year after his death, this is a record of a lifetime of observing the absurdities of the ways people relate and interact when getting close to each other.

     I love you
     Do you love me?
     I like you very much
     I adore you
     Take off your panties
     Undo your belt
     I’m crazy for you
     You fascinated me from the moment we met
     Open the buttons
     Take off your hat
     How do you get this darn thing open?
     Your zipper is stuck
     Watch out for my hair

L’amour à voix haute was published by Hoëbeke; there was also a German edition, Je t’aime, published by Kehayoff.