The novel “Deux gimlets sur la 5e Avenue” (ed. Gallimard) is released this Thursday in bookstores. A work in which Philippe Labro tells the story of a love story over four decades, at the time of the shift of the West to the 21st century.
Love stands the test of time. It is this Thursday that Philippe Labro sees his latest novel “Deux gimlets sur la 5e Avenue” (ed. Gallimard) find its place in bookstores. The story follows, over a period of forty years, the story of a first love, the one between Lucas and Elisabeth. From 1961 to 2001, the destiny of this man and this woman, and the strength of the feelings that unite them, will be written between Paris and New York, to the rhythm of the events that shake the world, and the people around them .
“It’s an idea I’ve had for a long time. It starts from a little story that I had written, and which I had never published,” explains Philippe Labro. “Initially, I had this story of a young couple who exploded in the early 1960s. He is unbearable, and she wants to dump him. And I said to myself that it would be interesting to know what will become of them. So I decided to cut the text in two, and we find them 40 years later, in New York, just after September 11,” he continues.
“It allowed me to have everyone tell their life story, and they each have a very different background. And through this, I was also able to tell about the eras. We talk about Vietnam, we talk about Hollywood, we obviously talk about the towers in Manhattan. The central character, Lucas, goes through all this with the idea that he must succeed in New York. But he doesn’t really succeed. Until he finds the solution. Which I am obviously not going to reveal,” specifies the novelist with mischief.
The strength of a first love
Author of more than twenty works, Philippe Labro “signs a dizzying journey through the years which preceded the shift of the West into the 21st century”, specifies the publisher. The story begins in 1961, in Paris, when Lucas finds traces of Elisabeth, the woman he loved, and still loves. For her, things are less obvious. And yet, both are not at the end of their surprises.
“As the philosopher Simone Weil said, the real tragedy is the passage of time. So, it is not a tragedy, it must be experienced with pleasure, curiosity, desire and desire. However, time passes and transforms people. And that’s also what I tried to do: how two young people become something else, but nevertheless, they still have the strength that is first love,” explains the author.
With “Deux gimlets sur la 5e Avenue”, it is precisely our capacity to accomplish ourselves, and to reinvent ourselves, that Philippe Labro questions. Journalist, writer, director, and media man, he has once again drawn on his personal experiences – his studies in the United States, the Algerian War, his taste for cinema… – to offer a fascinating story over forty years which have seen the world fundamentally transform at the dawn of the 21st century.
“Two gimlets on 5th Avenue”, Philippe Labro, ed. Gallimard, 128 p., €17
Related News :