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Rosebud – Mozart’s Sonata 16

Rosebud – Mozart’s Sonata 16
Rosebud – Mozart’s Sonata 16

Faced with such a striking force, before such a romantic homage was it subjective, how can we remain unmoved? Investigation novel, theses and adventure novel, A man alone takes us into the incredibly winding, a little sad, very tumultuous and quite extraordinary life of Jean-Michel Beigbeder, who died in 2023. Frédéric, “ the family writer », paints a heroic portrait of this dad who is both known (to everyone) and unknown (to his sons) for whom he has long had ambivalent feelings.

The author refuses nothing. A man alonenarrates the biography of a character with a very extroverted personality: a brilliant and enduring man, businessmanextraordinary, absent father whose life has – it seems to me – implicitly influenced the literary work of this youngest son: this latest opus provides an additional certificate as it carries within itself the revelations of the quintessence of this heritage.

It is a painful book which recounts episodes and precious moments, then alternates with suffering that has long remained silent. It is a learned and precise reconstruction in which Frédéric Beigbeder brings together with mixed pride and irony the pieces of existence of this illustrious Executive Searcher. As always, the literary references contained here are legion; from Dickens to Maupassant, from Plotinus to Roger Martin du , without forgetting a certain number of contemporary writers – is there a contemporary author other than Beigbeder who quotes his colleagues so much?

All this recalls the titanic work of the “ Dictionary of lovers of living French writers » published last year -, the reader witnesses the last moments of “JMB” quai de Tournelle, in Guéthary, and turns the pages amazed, dazzled by the layers of writing… The filial approach therefore strikes a double blow: full of empathy and tenderness, but also clear-cut and with just the right amount of restraint, she uses this double-edged title: “ A man alone », which ricochets. The only man now is Beigbeder Jr. Loneliness is a virus that is transmitted without scruples and ignores generations.

Frédéric Beigbeder had already explored the origins of his family inA French noveland delivered part of the story of his Righteous grandparents who saved several Jewish families: there, there are long pages on the Lambert jewelers collected by Charles and Grace. Evoked with modesty and emotion in a few memorable scenes in A barrier against the AtlanticJean-Michel Beigbeder finally appears in his early childhood at the Sorèze military school, mistreated by Dominicans with very unchristian manners: the residents endure terrible abuse.

The writer son confides that the father will be marked for life by these painful episodes. And in fact, whatever angle you look at it from, Jean-Michel Beigbeder's life is heavy artillery. The son, who excels in geopolitical considerations on this America of the 50s, on “ dehumanized capitalism“, and on the contribution of globalist consumerism so popular at the time by his boomer father, not only goes from discovery to discovery, but provides us with abundant information on the profession of “Head Hunter” of which Jean-Michel was the happy importer in .

Towards the middle of the novel, A man alonetakes a truly epic turn with mentions of American aristocratic ancestry, the scholarly discovery of real-false passports in the name of William Harben, the place of homonyms, the fertile hypothesis according to which the father could have been hired by the CIA . And more, and not only that…

The CIA offered scholarships to foreign students in exchange for their subsequent enlistment. It was a bet on the future. The young Frenchman was able to benefit from the support of the American secret services in exchange for the promise of becoming a “handling officer” during his future career. His recruitment by Spencer Stuart as head of European and then global development for the first international headhunting firm may then have served as a cover for economic intelligence activities…

On Plotinus and solipsism – a form of quest for the Grail or lyrical and spiritual obsession of the father – Beigbeder returns quite regularly. Solipsism looks like the tree that hides the forest. Several tasty chapters are built around it; irony is never absent. We feel the author's need to make this point, to finally take the time to dwell on this philosophy tainted with pessimism, to prefer that of Plato, to get to know this distant father better and to express why , going beyond the indifference he had felt until then, how much they, these two beings who impressed each other, fled from each other all their lives.

In a final burst, and with obvious admiration, it seems to me that Frédéric Beigbeder is seeking to close this strangely elastic relationship: does he not want to avenge this father, to avenge the future oblivion which would overwhelm him if this biographical opus had not been published, and in doing so, dig into the furrows of this man's life full of denials and gray areas. The junction point, the moment of unity which seals the father and the youngest son – “for centuries and centuries” – as if they were an ultimate reunion, seems to me to be this sonata 16 by Mozart whose melody we hear page 155.

The piano notes traveled through time and the living room with innocent limpidity. Life covers its original clarity with many layers of filthy unhappiness. The older we get, the more distant Sonata 16 becomes. The wonderful naivety of childhood fades into silence, like a treasure buried beneath the earth. The fact that this sleepy, tired and sad old father listens to sonata 16 alone in his living room is definitive proof that he had a heart, somewhere, hidden, buried. Mozart was the only archaeologist capable of unearthing it. Please stop reading this text and listen right away to the andante of Sonata 16, imagining this exhausted old businessman looking at a patch of sky above his building courtyard, knowing that he is going to die. At eighty-five, a breeze that shakes the leaves of a tree can be the apotheosis of a day. All it takes is for the piano to play certain notes in a certain order, and the world could almost seem accomplished. Sonata 16 allows me to dialogue with him. She's the conversation we never had. It connects us beyond words and death. It is Mozart who murders us.

A man aloneis and will remain an unfinished dialogue (or not, it depends on each person's belief) with the one who will have marked it with the seal of his absence, who will have “transmitted ghosts“. By pointing out similarities (the blade of divorce) then dissimilarities (the sacredness of the role of father), it seems to me that the author Frédéric Beigbeder also buries his beloved utopias and the selfishness of the 90s. Indeed, it is as if suddenly the adventures of Marc Marronnier and the Parango trilogy became more obsolete and of less interest.

It is as if a biotope was revealed, and the characteristics of a pedigree clarified. Any loyal reader better understands the why and how of the book.Windows on the Worldthe successes and setbacks within advertising agencies, the support for a communist candidate, the fascination for a completely literary America and the fact of having followed in the footsteps of Salinger, up to this non-hostility shown towards prostitution . Finally, if this book seems so important to me, it is because it shows mercy, grants ultimate forgiveness, ensuring the transmission of strong souls to the grandchildren who will read it.

I was struck this summer by readingThe last mannews published in theFig Mag. Beigbeder evokes in a science-fictional way the fear of the disappearance of the male. I find it wonderful that this book published a few months later dedicated to this Jean-Michel father, who can only be seen as the First Man, as all fathers are. It is certain that Frédéric Beigbeder lives in paths of adoration where there is never a single bad thought, where only reciprocal actions and loyalty really count.

With this work, he advances in this twilight of moods, becomes enraged, emits muffled cries, definitively seeks this need for consolation that is impossible to satisfy, aware of the roots of time, while remaining intensely daring. He thinks he has amnesia but has kept the best of the reminiscences that have occurred in his life, this is the strength of his very Fitzgeraldian paradox. Not everything is a simple matter of will, there are events that must be desired more deeply, and which require courage.

Loving takes courage. Frédéric Beigbeder is courageous.

By Laurence Biava
Contact : [email protected]

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