Contemporary offices, nestled at the back of the courtyard of a small historic street of 6e district of Paris. On this cold winter morning, editors and press officers are already hard at work when La Grande Sophie appears, wide jeans and a comfortable down jacket. She greets everyone with kind words. This is her first book but she seems very comfortable in this new environment. After the presentations, we took refuge in a private office.
This literary work lends itself to portraiture because it tells in small touches the singular journey of a girl who could have been very similar to many others of her generation. Sophie was born in Thionville in 1969 in a relatively modest environment. His mother is a liberal nurse, his father a worker, and above all a trade unionist! Very quickly, the family moved and she grew up not far from Marseille. The little girl is not delighted to go and campaign in Larzac, but she does not hate her life with her little brother among the other kids in the housing estate.
She would have liked to learn the piano, but it was expensive and her parents recommended the guitar, “more convenient to transport”. Driven by an immense desire to sing, the teenager begins to dream of somewhere else called Paris and it does not take long to meet the man who will become her companion for life: “I admire duration and fidelity and I was lucky to meet a man who agreed to follow me. We are still together, after more than thirty-five years. I don’t think we should ask any more questions. »
Transition to middle age
After a stint at the variety studio, she enjoyed success with a first album entitled The Great Sophie is growing. His nickname was obvious. As she writes beautifully, barely out of her mother’s womb, here she is characterized: «She screams very loudly and she has big feet.» This particularity will have continued and Sophie today measures 1.78 m. The world of show business being very disconcerting, she was made to understand when she was 28 that she was already a little old for certain festivals. Which does not help to ease his concerns about the passage of time. «I heard my grandmothers talk about old age so much like a shipwreck, that it always worried me. This probably explains why I had a particularly bad time reaching fifty. » However, she has a successful career, gold records and a loyal audience. This time, conducive to discouragement, nevertheless happily encouraged him to start writing. In the form of letters.
«I have always had a weakness for the epistolary form. Letters speak to me, I like the everyday details that slip through them. We detect the character of the correspondents”she explains. She addresses these letters to a certain Suzanne. Those who know La Grande Sophie will note that this is the title of one of her songs. «Suzanne is a character who arrived in my life in 2010, at a pivotal moment. (the dramatic nature of which we discover by reading the book, Editor’s note). Talking to him brought me comfort. For years I built these letters in my head. » But when she finally moved on to writing, she operated in the manner of a writer, not necessarily in order, taking care to give the time depth.
Joys and sorrows
The result has incredible charm and leaves us with the impression of having received letters from a friend, from a person who is not afraid to talk about her joys and sorrows, her successes but also her failures: “In this profession, we all try to put on a good face, but I wanted to show what is hidden behind the smile, our roller coaster, our difficulties.» Be careful, it’s never tearful. On the contrary, these letters paint the portrait of a simple, accessible, determined, intelligent and generous woman, who would be a good friend.
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► A book and a show
The pretty letters of Every day, Suzanne will not remain confined to the pages of the book. They have already been adapted into a show: a “only on stage” intended to tour throughout France, directed by Johanna Boyé. «It’s my own little musicalexplains LGS (La Grande Sophie), halfway between the concert and the reading.» This new stage and narrative form will also allow him to discover to the public processes often kept secret such as the birth and development of a song, or the way in which artists sometimes sing in yogurt (an incomprehensible language) before putting real words to the music. In short, the opportunity to get to know LGS in real life. The first will take place in Aix-en-Provence on January 17, then it will be Nantes, Toulouse, Marseille, Paris, Lyon and many other cities (1).
