Tuesday books - Loris S. Musumeci
«Never forget that you're a Delval, my son. You are of the race of lords.»
Alex Delval, son of Alexandre Delval, is looking for his place. And it's not easy. The young boy would like to go into cinema for the kindness and love that a film set offers under the spotlight and the gaze of the camera. But the place seems already taken, for eternity. A lord of the cinema sits there: Alexandre Delval. So the son is lost. Which leads him to commit a few - very stupid - acts. Drugs, violence and the art of ruining everything. One night, Alex meets a shrink. A discussion between the two begins, delving into the depths of each other's suffering.
Always unpleasant
Alain-Fabien Delon, in addition to acting and modeling, has taken up writing. Over the past few months, he's been making a name for himself on TV for his incredible ability to be almost always unpleasant. Is it natural arrogance? Because he's tired of being compared to his father, Alain Delon? Because of stress? Unlike the character Alex meets, I'm not a shrink. But that didn't stop me from noticing that, behind the Delon son's gloomy exterior, lies a certain authenticity, a tumultuous past and a book that deserves to be approached: Of the race of lords.
This is neither a masterpiece nor a piece of rubbish. The clumsiness of the style can be felt right from the start of the novel. As is often the case, it's the dialogue that fails. Too well-written to ring true, too slangy to ring true. A pity, but not dramatic. The author is forgiven, moreover: the art of dialogue is not easy to acquire, and few writers have mastered it. There are also a few problems with the book's construction, not least that of repetition. The back-and-forth between the discussion with the shrink and the stories of his youth is tiring in the long run. As for the subject's originality, we've seen better, but here again, there's nothing to get excited about.
Against the father
Because Of the race of lords remains a good book, despite its flaws. Alain-Fabien Delon and his character are above all endearing. One for what he is, the other for what he lives. Alex experiences a whole host of scabrous events that are not only told, but offered to the reader. Based on a particular situation, the boy's (mis)adventures cleverly question the relationship between father and son. Whether the father is an Alain Delon or a factory worker or anyone else. Even in the easiest situations, there's always an opposition between father and son that emerges in adolescence. The son builds himself from the father, with the father, and ultimately against the father. The novel reveals all these ambiguities.
«My dreams are everyone's dreams: to be happy, to love and be loved, to make a success of my life. No more, no less. Alone, I can't do it. But tonight, instinct, skin, something more beautiful and powerful than reason, is telling me to dare: the crazy hope that this stranger will hear me. I'll tell my story and we'll finally know. They'll know what a monster my father is. They'll know how much I love him. We'll know the pain of a cry thrown into the void.»
The freshness of youth
It has to be said, and this passage illustrates it well, the author still has class when he writes. Yeah, the guy's got style. And audacity! He's not afraid to throw in terms as vague as they are meaningful, like love, hate, hope, drugs and so on. He has the freshness of a youth who still dares to do everything: to talk about his sexual adventures in big words, to talk about despair by naming it as it is, to bear witness to addiction to hard drugs by not hiding the details, and to dream of love and glory with his eyes open.
This is the story of a boy who hopes, tries and fails. This is the story of an anti-hero. This is the story of a bungler; wicked in spite of himself, kind by design. This is the story of Alex, who, unable to find his place, creates one for himself. This is the story of Alain-Fabien, who, unable to find his place either, creates one for himself. He was hunk «son of», hunk commonplace, hunk rotten, hunk moron, hunk victim. He became a hunk writer, and from the race of lords, please.
Alain-Fabien Delon
Of the race of lords
Editions Stock
2019
174 pages
Write to the author: loris.musumeci@leregardlibre.com
Photo credit: © Loris S. Musumeci for Le Regard Libre
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