During the last lunch of the Best Sellers of L’Express, the world was divided into two camps: the French and the Belgians. While our most sensitive compatriots were decreasing at the last minute, dizzy at the idea of crossing Jordan Bardella, the stainlessness Amélie Nothomb and the Legalist’s Legalist Philippe Boxho were very present, assuring us that they had seen others, the first as a diplomat’s daughter, the second in his autopsy room. No offense to Baudelaire, who drove them for winter in Belgium undressed, Our neighbors often have more fantasy and freedom of mind than us. The proof with Bernard Quiriry, born in Bastogne in 1978. Professor of law, insightful and biting literary critic (at Read magazine and elsewhere) and excellent novelist (we especially advise his Portrait of Handrax Baron), it is even better in the tale register and other short forms. His Nocturnes (Shores), where the fantastic invites itself in everyday life, are to be offered to all readers dreaming of a meeting between the dreamlike atmospheres of Edgar Allan Poe and the creaky humor of Roald Dahl.
What are the ingredients of good news in the eyes of this genre specialist? Quiniry tells us about his recipe: “A good idea (a situation, an event, a quirk), a well -tense thread (no digression, no secondary intrigue, no inner cutting), a first and a last well -neat sentences. We can say a lot in a few pages or a few lines, keep a whole vision of the world, by subtraction and suggestion.” His references prove to be most recommendable: “My Saint-Patron remains Marcel Aymé, as brilliant as a novelist. The Muraille Passe (The collection and the news), I will take it on Mars! I reread it once a year, I am always dazzled. Other authors of bright -fetish forms, in various genres: Borges (for the labyrinths), Maupassant (for the glance and cruelty), Jules Renard (for clarity). Today, I admire David Thomas Micronouvelles, in a register far from mine. “
The news, alas, is not the wind in their stern with us. How to explain this phenomenon? With a mathematical rigor, Quiriny lists five reasons: “1) very difficult to evoke in the press, because there is nothing to pitch. 2) Rarefaction of literary journals, which constituted a receptacle for the news. 3) No tradition with us of creative writing workshops, which have the merit in the Anglo-Saxon world to accumulate generations of students to the news. 4) In France, mythification of the novel, genus renowned alone ‘serious’. 5) Fear of the readers, since there are several stories, to have to start the initial acclimatization effort necessary to immerse yourself several times. But if the newist is good, this effort is canceled, it goes by itself. “In the same way that the moralists of the 17th century have been able to find a certain audience on X, is it not possible that the news knows a boom in our time when no one has time to read? Quiriny does not necessarily share our optimism:” I would like to believe that yes, as the series supplants the film today, but in literature, ” Too bad. Or so much the better: the news remains a kind of happy few! “
As a conclusion, Flattons the Patriotic Fiber of Quiriny. Do its Walloon roots explain the singularity of its talent? “It is possible! The funniest thing is that I have, so to speak, never lived in Belgium, but I still find myself writing ‘from the Belgian’, with a surreal and bizarre side. It must be the magic of Belgility … Anyway, I recommend three Belgian newists to your readers. There are first the two Marcel (again!): Thiry (Thiry (Thiry (Thiry (Thiry (ThiryBig Possible news) and Mariën (The ghost of the Card Castle). In the fantastic vein, my favorite compatriot may be Jacques Sternberg, who invented his own format, the news on a page. THE Frozen and GRIFFUS TALESit’s extraordinary. “The same could be said of the twenty strange and bewitching texts that make up Nocturnes. We finally give Quiriny the Goncourt Prize for the news! And on our side, let’s be reasonable: let’s abandon French novels for the benefit of Belgian news.
Nocturnes. By Bernard Quiriry. Shores, 217 p., € 19.50.