Throughout his books and articles in TalkerThomas Morales celebrates the France of yesterday, that of his youth and the Trente Glorieuses. His two new collections of chronicles, The Bouquinistes et Tender is the province give pride of place to personal memories and literary portraits.
“With him, we were credible interlocutors. He lifted us towards adulthood without diminishing our minority”writes Thomas Morales about Roald Dahl, read during childhood. He further writes: “From lazy summers to game-filled autumns, from chipped sub-prefectures to this much-desired graying capital, from saints celebrated in a Romanesque church to the harmless pleasures of a kiss agreed to at the back of a courtyard, this entire body of work has disappeared. » A writer capable of concocting such sentences is excellence. Thomas Morales, who publishes The Bouquinistes et Tender is the provincetwo succulent collections of chronicles, have been offering exceptional literature for around fifteen years and around twenty works. And, notoriously, it evolves with grace, elegance and ease, in the undergrowth of an original creation, out of the norm and out of fashion, so far from the beaten track, hit, crushed, destroyed by wokism and politics correct. There is everything in the two sentences cited: great nostalgia, a tangy melancholy like a Nick Drake melody, a breathtakingly lively style. Thomas Morales fulfills us.
From Berry to Finistère
When asked about the genesis of these two opuses, he replied: « The Bouquinistes constitutes the third part of my work on nostalgia published by Héliopoles. It was planned for a long time. I plow this furrow with a happiness that I hope to share. I try to capture its highlights through different figures, most often artistic. The world before moves me. Tender is the provincein Ecuador, is different because it was written in the heat of the moment. It is without a doubt my most personal book in fifteen years. It is a wandering, as is often the case with me, truant, from my village childhood to my first steps in journalism. For the first time, I am distilling memories, atmospheres, settings from my province, and even from my provinces because I go from Berry to Finistère. »
Thomas Morales excels in the chronicle genre; he loves to indulge in it and explains: “The chronicle is, in my opinion, a major art that I place on the same level as the novel. It requires, by its small format, density and remarkable explosiveness if it wants to achieve its goal. That is to say, hitting the reader with the uppercut. It does not allow approximations. »
To reread, Thomas Morales: “I place the chronicle at the same literary rank as the novel!”
Cantor of France during the Trente Glorieuses, he never ceases to remember his childhood, his adolescence, the landscapes, the smells. Television images (in black and white) and cinematographic images come back to him, like soap bubbles with pastel reflections. “I usually say that this France was and remains my cultural biotope and my mental setting”he admits. I like its allure, its second degree, its modesty, its deceased artists, its old fraternities, its characterful automobiles and its sauced dishes. The Trente Glorieuses are my identity refuge, so yes, I fantasize them a little, I make them fit my mold, but I find in this period a freshness and a dignity which we are sorely lacking today. However, it was a historically harsh and tense period, but the French were happy, full of hope, they believed in a better future for their children. »
We understand: today's France is not his cup of tea – and even less the glass of Sancerre – of our Berrichon; he finds her “duller, more split, more locked in victim logic, more resistant to freedom of expression, more worried about its future. Less free, less cheeky, less laughing, less charming. In a word, lacking hope and panache. I would like us to rediscover the French spirit, that which runs from Villon to Choron, from Dumas to Guitry. Style, humor, lightness, loyalty to a land and sincere excitement. »
The quality of Denis Tillinac’s pen
Villon, Choron, Dumas and Guitry. Literary references, it rains like on the Brittany of Caradec, in the prose of Morales. “My masters in chronicles, my sprinters of writing, are numerous. We always learn from our elders, writing is a tough school. To improve, you have to be humble. I think, for example, of Kléber Haedens for his fluidity, his papers flow like living water, they are erudite on a human level, never pretentious, always charged with a beneficial wave; I learned a lot from his enthusiasms and his disgusts. He had a harsh grudge against certain untouchable writers. I also have a weakness for Jacques Perret, what a virtuoso pen! And an Italian who is less known in France and whom I constantly advertise: Ennio Flaiano (1910-1972), he is the Roman spirit incarnate, the Dolce Vita and its joyful ferocity. How can we not also mention Vialatte, the prince of Auvergne! » It also rehabilitates the great forgotten, the talented “distraught”as Patrice Delbourg described them in the beautiful essay of the same name published in 1996. Kléber Haedens, Robert Giraud, Emmanuel Bove, Antoine Blondin, Jean-Claude Pirotte, André Hardellet, Henri Calet, René Fallet… are honored in the chronicles of Morales. He does not forget the late and delicious Denis Tillinac who gave his name to a prize which, in 2022, rewarded our author. “It was a great honor because there are some similarities in our backgrounds. Mine remains very shy compared to his. This fraternity is illustrated by attachment to the province, learning journalism in a local editorial team, our love for the Regional Daily Press which remains the best school for feeling the popular aspirations of a country and also for loyalty to the hussar writers and, more generally, to the reprobate of the circles. And what we often forget when we talk about Tillinac is his quality of writing. » Thomas Morales also has a great quality: he has the memory of the heart.
To read
The Bouquinistes, Thomas Morales, Heliopolis, 2024.
Tender is the province, Thomas Morales, 2024.
