«White Palace: no red carpet for romance

The new literary season is a bit like a packet of popcorn at the movies: everything looks wonderful at first glance, but once you've plunged your hand into the mass, there's nothing but hard kernels. So to avoid this, let's exhume a little gem published in 1987 in the United States.

White Palace, is the story of two mismatched souls from worlds that have nothing in common. The tale of an unlikely encounter, a twist of fate. The eruption of a disoriented passion that turns into a battered love. Max, a 27-year-old middle-class advertising executive, ends his night sobering up in a seedy bar where the air is thick with the smell of stale beer, cheap perfume, fried food, and sweat. His gaze meets that of a woman leaning against the bar. Nonchalantly, with the insolent indifference of those who have a hangover in the middle of the week, he returns her greeting.

Callipyge

He could hardly make out her figure, hidden behind the swirling smoke from her cigarette. But when she rose from her stool, his entire mind focused on the slit in her dress, forming a single word in his mind: callipyge. Bony shoulders, a narrow waist, a face caked in makeup, angular and harsh features—but a disproportionately curvaceous behind. Yes, that was indeed the word that had jumped out at him: callipyge.

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Max had never been particularly drawn to gigantic behinds, but he found himself thinking he would have liked to take another quick look at it, purely out of aesthetic interest—albeit a rather perverse one. And then this woman tapped him on the shoulder. It’s all over for Max; nothing will ever be the same again. From being mired in the daily grind, he’s now mired in conflicting emotions.

Two people who are like two opposites

Il aime la propreté, l’ordre, l’éducation, la politesse, tout ce qui est classe, lisse et sans éclat ; il découvre que Nora est inculte, bordélique, vulgaire, ridée… mais surtout qu’elle l’attire irrésistiblement. Et inévitablement. Sans parvenir à savoir pourquoi, ni quoi faire de ce désir.

Through this tumultuous romantic duo, Glenn Savan offers a splendid, unconventional novel that seeks to capture the workings of the heart and to unravel their reasons and their chaos. White Palace catapults us into what is perhaps the most absolute aspect of romantic attraction: its ability to challenge all certainties and expectations. Max is neither admirable nor reassuring, and Nora is neither thoughtful nor charming, but their relationship simply makes them feel worthwhile. And if all of this is just a fluke, then why is it impossible to walk away?

A heartbreakingly beautiful love

This is not a story of romance, grand displays of emotion, or flowery speeches—only of two people caught in a tangle, unable to come to terms with their attraction and too afraid to face their vulnerability. Two people who each seem to be dancing on a narrow ridge, on the edge of the abyss of emotions, separated by social conventions, united by a shared fear: not having the courage to accept their own smallness in order to slip into the grandeur of love.

In this maelstrom of paradoxical passions, Max and Nora do not embody true love, but rather a grandiose love—one marked by doubts and torments that they strive to overcome, groping their way forward, half-heartedly.

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Glenn Savan
White Palace
Translated from English by Isabelle Reinharez
Actes Sud, «Babel» series»
528 pages
2007 [1987]

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