at the origins of Patrick Sébastien

at the origins of Patrick Sébastien
at the origins of Patrick Sébastien

Apart from a few fictions, a collection of aphorisms and a curious book mixing crosswords and reflections, the challenge is met: as you see, the author of these lines has come to the end of Patrick Sébastien’s bibliography. Sixteen weeks of hard work during which he had the impression of living partly in the brain of the troublemaker-acrobat-entertainer. It was not an easy task.

To put an end to this series presented in a not at all chronological order, it seemed important to return to the origins of patochesque reflection. For this purpose, it is appropriate to look back thirty years, to the year of our Lord 1994, when he was barely in his forties. In Au Bonheur des Souls, his only book published by Stock (it will later be published by Florent Massot then XO Éditions), Patrick Sébastien already portrays himself as a life coach convinced of having unlocked all the secrets of a balanced life.

Pyramid with three bases

Unlike most of the books that follow, this one is constructed. There is a plan and even, incredible but true, a table of contents. There follow fifteen chapters in which he reveals his secrets for managing jealousy, guilt, failure, small annoyances, backbiting, heartbreak, unhappiness, etc.

Between each game, Patrick gives free rein to his facetious inclinations by giving us fictitious letters addressed to him to read. We don’t really understand the principle and, moreover, he himself tells us at the start of the book that they are completely dispensable and that we can skip them. Of which act.

Over the course of the fifteen subjects covered, Patrick Sébastien develops a main method, which it is surprising that it did not give its name to the book: that of the pyramid. “The first basis of this method,” writes Patrick, “is humor. Whether black, pink, thin or huge, the inner smile on you,…

Read more on Slate.fr

-

-

PREV Books Celebration, it’s this Saturday
NEXT Meetings with authors, events, documentaries, exhibitions… for the Pont-Saint-Esprit and Rhone Gard book festival