During July, within the Clochemerle in Saint-Germain-des-Prés, we had the impression that only one book was scheduled for August: The Pretty Evil by Emma Becker, to be published by Albin Michel. Everyone was talking about this novel in which the sulphurous author of The House tells in detail the passionate story she has been living for two years with a scoundrel aristocrat writer (easily recognizable). Because of a few racy scenes, it was fashionable to chuckle. In a milieu not known for its morality, one suddenly only came across startled goody-two-shoes. Amusing hypocrisy… For once, we will not try to win over the laughter: The Pretty Evil is a marvel of vitality, style and wit. If this book will bristle as much neo-feminists as false devotees, it will delight true lovers of literature, who will salute in Becker the only heir to Colette worthy of the name.
Still at Albin Michel, but very differently, we liked Heart by Thibault de Montaigu. In this superb tale in the style of Emmanuel Carrère, we see Montaigu taking care of his sick father – a former flamboyant Dom Juan who is now aging, blind and ruined. The latter convinces his son to look into their ancestor who died in combat in 1914. This makes for a high-flying psychogenealogical investigation: it seems Heritage by Philip Roth written by Paul Morand at his best. For the heirs of the hussars (both military and literary), this will be the must-read book of the year.
The prize for elegance goes to…
The back-to-school season could (almost) end there. That would be insulting to the 309 other French authors who will be publishing in the coming days. The punters and other fortune tellers are already giving the Goncourt prize to Kamel Daoud for Houris (Gallimard). Will Antoine Gallimard finally choose to push another little horse to the jurors whose ear he has, in this case Carole Martinez (Sleep your brute sleep) or Maylis de Kerangal (Day of surfwhich is published by its subsidiary Verticales)? Still on the subject of Gallimard, one is surprised that the august house, venerable but too cautious, refused Patrice Jean’s last manuscript on the grounds of bad spirit. Having found refuge at Cherche Midi, he is released there The Life of Ghostsa melancholic satire of our modernity that would make an excellent Renaudot prize. Finally, as far as books with prizes are concerned, it seems that the Humus by Gaspard Koenig (Interallié 2023) has inspired some. In his wake, several graphomaniac intellectuals offer big novels of ideas, not always graceful: Aurélien Bellanger (The Last Days of the Socialist PartyThe Threshold), Abel Quentin (HutThe Observatory), Mathieu Larnaudie (Trash VortexActes Sud).
Do we have the right to prefer dandy finesse to sociological paving stones? The prize for elegance goes to Jean-Pierre Montal for The North Face (Séguier), a brief evocation of an impossible love between a 50-year-old man and a septuagenarian. Another gem unearthed in our piles, unfortunately full of nonsense: So it’s good (Gallimard), where Clémentine Mélois tells how she managed to transform her father’s funeral into a work of art. Death inspired two other very good vintages: Pierre Adrian tells the story of Cesare Pavese’s suicide in Hotel Roma (Gallimard), and Sébastien Lapaque that of Stefan Zweig in Checkmate in Paradise (Actes Sud). Zweig is also at the heart of the book marking the return of Clémence Boulouque, The Feeling of Twilights (Robert Laffont). Robbe-Grillet fans will laugh when reading No respect (Stock) by Emmanuelle Lambert, and those by Marguerite Yourcenar will be passionate about Another one is waiting for me elsewhere (La Martinière), where Christophe Bigot dissects the astonishing last affair of the great lady – when, in her eighties, she fell madly for a temperamental gigolo 46 years her junior! Toxicity still with Camille Pascal who, in The Queen of the Labyrinth (Robert Laffont), narrates with his shimmering style the affair of the necklace and the worries encountered by Marie-Antoinette facing Cardinal de Rohan and Jeanne de La Motte-Valois. On the subject of historical novels, this niche, a curiosity: the thriller star Olivier Norek abandons his favorite genre and publishes The Winter Warriors (Michel Lafon), which discusses the invasion of Finland by Russia in 1939. Will his many readers follow him on this terrain? We’ll see…
First novels and heavyweights
A new school year also means discoveries. Two first novels stand out: that of Alice Develey, Fallen from the sky (The Iconoclast), a poignant account of the forced hospitalization of an anorexic teenager; and that of the poet Célestin de Meeûs, Mythology of the .12 (Editions du Sous-Sol). Since the French are notoriously sinister, two Belgian authors have come to inject a little humor into French-speaking literature: Daphné Tamage with The Return of Saturn (Stock) and Quentin Jardon with Modern Grief (Flammarion). Among the younger generation, let us also mention those who, already well-seen, could emerge from the autumnal slaughter thanks to a prize or a bookstore success: Audrée Wilhelmy (BloodskinThe Tripod), Philibert Humm (Railway station novelEcuador), Shane Haddad (Love GilPOL), Céline Laurens (The house of GodAlbin Michel), Pierre Darkanian (We are immortalAnne Carrière), Mathieu Palain (Men lack courageThe Iconoclast), Tom Connan (Pink capitalAlbin Michel), Jean-Baptiste de Froment (The good newsAnne Carrière), Perrine Tripier (ConchGallimard), Guillaume Sire (The Great Strange HomelandsCalmann-Lévy), Emmanuel Ruben (MalvilleStock), Guillaume Perilhou (The Serpent’s CrownThe Observatory) or Miguel Bonnefoy (The Jaguar’s DreamShores).
With all this, we have not had time to read heavyweights such as Jérôme Ferrari (North SentinelActes Sud), Sandrine Collette (Madelaine before dawnJC Lattès), Yves Ravey (Just windMidnight), Philippe Jaenada (Casualness is a beautiful thing.Mialet-Barrault) or Grégoire Bouillier (The Orangery SyndromeFlammarion). We will not heap more praise on Olivier Guez, whose ambitious Mesopotamia is already praised by our collaborator Abnousse Shalmani in her column. The rumor is less flattering, to put it mildly, concerning Muriel Barbery (Thomas HelderActes Sud), Gaël Faye (JacarandaGrasset), Faïza Guène (Love love yesterday?Fayard) or Maud Ventura (FamousThe Iconoclast) but, not having opened these titles, we will refrain from harsh comments.
In order to spare ourselves an Quincke’s edema, we did not leaf through the new Alice Zeniter (Hitting the epicFlammarion) – she is usually the champion of heaviness, both in terms of content and form. With the professional conscience that characterizes us, we have nevertheless read a few turkeys sold as “powerful”, “inspiring”, or even downright “jubilant”. Charity prevents us from establishing a complete list here. A month before the first selections, let’s reward the two worst ones anyway, by awarding our Grand Prix for tearful opportunism to Véronique Olmi for The Courage of the Innocent (Albin Michel) and that of obsessive bitterness to Jean-Marc Parisis for Prescriptions (Stock). These may not be the laurels they claim. Check back in a few weeks to see who, among all the names listed above, has pulled it off.
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