Tuesday's books - Amélie Wauthier
I was in seconde at Lycée Massena when my French teacher put «La fée carabine» in my hands. (I think that's when I got into the bad habit of reading most books in a hurry: because I have a presentation - now an article - to write for the next day). Nice, the year 2002, I was sixteen and not really interested in literature when I fell madly in love with Benjamin Malaussène, his tribe, their epileptic dog and the pen that gave life to all this merry mess. In short, I had just discovered Daniel Pennac and I was hooked!
So, of course, the other day - it was Thursday, I'm trying to correct my bad habits as best I can - the latest the latest Daniel Pennac, prominently displayed on the new releases island, immediately caught my eye. immediately caught my eye. «Yes, but Amélie,» I said to myself, "are you sure it's a good idea to choose this book? Remember what happened what happened last time..." Ever since the crazy adventures of the adventures of the Malaussène family, and especially the end of the saga, I've expanded my reading to include the writer's other works, always with great pleasure.
So one day, with a heart full of enthusiasm, I put my trust in my favorite author - he who had sold me so many dreams and laughs - and bought myself Like a novel, a great Pennatian classic, and The dictator and the hammock. Woe! I didn't like it at all. Big disaster and drama in my world, I don't even think I finished the first one (it had never happened to me before not to finish a book, but I didn't know Romain Gary yet). So that's where Daniel and I left off. It was time to give ourselves a second chance. The dreamer's law, The title was promising.
«As far as we can date this kind of birth, I became a writer the night of that conversation with Louis. I was ten years old and asserting to my best friend that light is water.»
I have to admit, I'd really missed this style. missed this style. Like an ogre, I devoured the words and went through the first first thirty-four pages, congratulating Pennac on some of his sparkling for some of his sparkling finds, as if he could hear me think. hear me think. I'm transported from one dream to another, passing through reality reality, that of the past, then the present... and things start to get a bit get a little more confusing. Names begin to cascade. Mila, Nora, Minne, Charlotte, Vincent, Christofo, Corentine, Carole, Kahina, Gil, Loïc, Manue, Alex, Rolf, Machin, Machine,...
I hate it when an author finds nothing to integrate fifty thousand new characters in the space of two pages. when, after five years in the same building, I can't remember my next-door neighbour's first name. remember my next-door neighbor's first name. At this point in the story, Pennac shares his daily life with the reader, who is not necessarily a member of his family, a relative or a friend. family member, close friend or monomaniac who knows the writer's life inside out. who knows the writer's life inside out and can recite each of his books like a the alphabet. If this doesn't create a feeling of closeness, it does have the effect of isolating me with the feeling of observing, behind a thick pane of glass the daily lives of complete strangers from a culture opposed to my own. A bit boring.
But the story is nice, somewhat confusing. Maybe too confusing, not nice enough. I'm having trouble getting totally hooked. The style is charming, but the story ultimately lacks a bit of substance, which makes this not a super-pleasant read for me. More than halfway through the book, I can't really explain what it's all about. The incessant to-ing and fro-ing between past and present, dream, fiction and reality, made my head spin and I lost my footing, like in a dream that goes off in all directions and defies all logic. I have the impression that this book is not for me, a mere mortal, who has never come into contact with the author, either in his classes or in his imagination.
Do I owe my adolescent memories of Monsieur Pennac memories of Monsieur Pennac, an idealized vision? I need to know for sure after this latest half-hearted reading. With my reading glasses screwed on my nose, I dive caving-style between the shelves of my library to bring surface my old, deeply buried treasures. I open the I open the first of the books perched at the top of a tall stack and read the first lines. That's all it takes for me to sweep away all my doubts with a wave of my prose.
So I may not recommend this latest work, but I can only encourage you to (re)discover this writer who has thrilled me so much in the past. With my precious memories out of the way, it will give my next winter weekends a deep taste of passion fruit.
Write to the author: amelie.wauthier@leregardlibre.com
Photo credit: © Amélie Wauthier
Daniel Pennac
The dreamer's law
2019
Editions Gallimard
175 pages
French 
German 
English