People are like that by Philippe Delerm, the “Sempé of words”

With People are like thatPhilippe Delerm resumes his favorite game. Weigh the little things of everyday life, giving them back all their density. Here, he focuses on our little sentences. They are said to be prosaic, banal. He sees it as a human comedy. When the man in a hurry barely notices them, he lingers on them. He crowns them with “short meta-physical sentences », of this philosophy which makes existence more tender. Under his playful pen, each linguistic tic becomes a micro-narrative.

Who better than him knows how to identify the “politely horrified tension of the face” which accompanies the “II don't wish it on anyone » ? The “little self-mocking pout” of “it's cute» ?

You'd think he was annoyed by the “don't worry” from the youngest and the “that's a departure” from the retirees. Now we would be wrong again. The “Sempé of words” knows how to find its golden fringe in each cloud. Each of his tiny sentences is, like his “first…