“My Murderer” by Daniel Pennac
► At Gallimard
Pennac here combines autobiography and fiction.
The fiction is that which he deploys around the assassin of the title, nicknamed Pépère. Pépère being the central character of the last volume of the Malaussène saga. Pennac tells us about his childhood, where he comes from.
And as for the autobiographical side of the book, Pennac takes us into his writer's workshop with what that implies of self-deprecation, of doubts and he tackles this question: where do the characters come from? Answer: literary inspirations but above all, in the case of Pennac, stories of friendship, which he extends thanks to his fictional beings.
“The Jaguar's Dream” by Miguel Bonnefoy
The book not only won the Grand Prix du Roman de l'Académie Française last month but it was also awarded the Femina this week.
“The Dream of the Jaguar” is a family epic and this time the author was inspired by his Venezuelan maternal origins. The story unfolds over three generations in a country – Venezuela – which experiences dictatorship, democracy, coups d'état, revolution on the scale of the century.
It is the story of two grandparents raised in poverty and promised exceptional destinies, each will become a renowned doctor and Miguel Bonnefoy's novel begins like a tale: an infant is abandoned on the steps of a church with a cigarette rolling machine in the fold of his diapers and he is taken in by a mute beggar.
“The Winter Warriors” by Olivier Norek
► At Michel Laffont
With “Winter Warriors” abandons the thriller genre for a historical fresco: a war between Finland and Stalin's USSR, between November 1939 and March 1940.
Olivier Norek recounts the diplomatic maneuvers, the murderous madness of the commands, the solidarity between soldiers and the central figure of a Finnish villager, whose name is Simo, an exceptional shooter and living legend nicknamed “The White Death”.
The novel obviously brings to mind today's Ukraine and Russia.
The book was a bookstore success, it came out of the awards season empty-handed after appearing on the Goncourt and Renaudot lists.
“For Britney” by Louise Chennevière
► At POL
As its title indicates, the singer Britney Spears is one of the figures in this book, a pop icon who marked an entire generation, to which Louise Chennevière belongs, that is to say the generation which grew up in the 90s.
The other figure in this text is the Quebec writer Nelly Arcan, who was a prostitute before writing and who committed suicide at the age of 36.
Louise Chennevière establishes a link between Britney and Nelly: two women whose bodies were coveted and sexualized. And with these two women, Louise Chennevière mixes her own experience as a young woman.
Through the three of them, she questions the relationship with the body, the gaze of boys, men and old gentlemen.
The whole thing is written in one go, without chapters, with long sentences, like emptying your bag.
“The Rule of Crime” by Colson Whitehead, translated by Charles Recoursé
► At Albin Michel
“The Rule of Crime” is a dive into New York in the 1970s thanks to Colson Whitehead, a great figure in contemporary black American literature.
As a reminder, Colson Whitehead is one of the few to have won the Pulitzer Prize for fiction twice.
There, he has just published “The Rule of Crime” which is the second part of a historical fresco that he devotes to Harlem.
The first part took place in the early 1960s, this one spans the years 1971–1976.
We notably find the character of Ray Carney, a former car storage thug, married with two children, owner of a furniture and building store in Harlem. But the day his daughter asks him for tickets to the Jacskon Five concert, Ray reconnects with the world of crime to get them.
The novel has three parts with corrupt police inspectors against a backdrop of armed struggle for civil rights, rise of the African-American counter-culture, particularly in the cinema, with Blaxplotation and municipal campaign with also corrupt candidate for mayor.
In short, welcome to New York, to its energy, its fire, the crucible of Whitehead's inspiration.
18/20 · One day in the world Listen later
Lecture listen 35 min
► With Kamel Daoud, Prix Goncourt 2024 for “Houris” has The Book Fair in Brive-la-Gaillarde
The Mask and the Feather Listen later
Lecture listen 8 min
Favorites:
Patricia Martin : “Heartache” by Frédéric Pajak, editions Noir sur Blanc
Jean-Marc Proust : “The last summer of Gustav Mahler” by Laurent Sagalovitsch, Le Cherche Midi
Elisabeth Philippe : collection of poems “What you will find hidden in my ear” by Mosab Abu Toha, Julliard
Arnaud Viviant : “Freud's Jaw” by Yann Diener, Gallimard
Rebecca Manzoni: the comic strip “On the line, factory sheets” by Julien Martinière, from Sarbacane (based on the first novel by Joseph Ponthus, published 5 years ago)
