En opening his mailbox on April 17, 2023, Denis Dupuy was far from imagining that he would be forced to leave his office a few months later. That day, the registered mail informed him of his dismissal. The cause, according to him: the director of the Ambroise-Paré private clinic in Toulouse, where he was employed, would have recognized himself in a scene from the urologist surgeon's latest work.
“In my fourth book, entitled ''Trifles, or how much I carry… my contemporaries'', I tell a fictional story which takes place at the end of Covid. I'm talking about a completely crazy clinic in which there is transgender surgery, where people are sold, etc. Nothing ever happened that I recount in this book. I invented a scene in which my main character, Doctor Trente-Trois, goes to see his director and he is having sex with a trade unionist, says the urologist, a lover of 19th century literature.e and the philosopher Nietzsche. Since I was convinced that no one would want my book, I recorded myself reading the book and posted it on YouTube. He surely heard the chapter in which he thought he recognized himself…”
“It’s cruel”
This scene, inspired by a work by Marcel Proust, forces him to pack his boxes. He then moved to Villeneuve-sur-Lot in May 2024 and became the third urologist at the Lot Valley Health Center. But even today, he drags behind him a complaint against him for public insult. “It’s cruel and it makes no sense. The only connection between him and my character is that they are both directors. But I never thought about him. If the clinic really looked like what I describe in the book, we would have to send the army to tear down the walls,” confides the 60-year-old doctor, who had worked in the establishment for twenty years.
However, this is the first time that one of his books has caused problems. After a first book whose story was inspired by his life, he published three other works, purely fictional. “The next one, which is called “Ontology in the Kingdom of Bonobos”, is planned for 2025. It will be very inspired by reality. I tell in a fictionalized way what happened during this last year. I base this on the abuses of the health system and on this question: how do we get back up when we have been thrown to the ground in this way? »
Discuss and make people laugh
“The good side of all this is that I am here today and I am very happy,” he says, smiling. At PSV, I came across a director who based himself on my skills and not on a book sold in a few hundred copies,” says the health professional, who practices medicine without exceeding fees.
Despite the modesty he displays in his writings, he does not hide his pleasure when a reader asks him to sign her book in the lobby of the health establishment. “I suspect I wouldn't win the Nobel Prize. But with my books, I want to discuss, to exchange, and those who tell me that it made them laugh. That’s more than enough for me! »
