{"id":38537,"date":"2021-02-16T14:00:00","date_gmt":"2021-02-16T13:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/leregardlibre.com\/?p=38537"},"modified":"2022-09-25T16:09:25","modified_gmt":"2022-09-25T14:09:25","slug":"lanomalie-a-brilliant-novel-with-a-philosophical-background","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/leregardlibre.com\/en\/literature\/lanomalie-a-brilliant-novel-with-a-philosophical-background\/","title":{"rendered":"\u00abL'Anomalie\u00bb, a novel with a philosophical background"},"content":{"rendered":"

Tuesday's books - Lauriane Pipoz<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Reading the synopsis of The Anomaly<\/em>, I'm expecting a thriller. A bit of science fiction. A thriller. A philosophical novel. I'm (almost) right, because it is all these things, but not entirely. Herv\u00e9 Le Tellier offers us a masterly work in which literary genres mingle. Leaping from one to the other, the 2020 Goncourt prizewinner has fun showing us that to make a fascinating work, there's no need to rely on absolute coherence.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

\u00abIn thirty minutes,\" continues Tina Wang, \"we'll give you a list of scientists. Two or three philosophers, too.
- Why?\" asks Silveria.
- And why should scientists always be the only ones awake at night? Silveria shrugs.
- Don't back down on any names, I have full authority to kidnap every Nobel Prize winner present in the territory.\u00bb<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Plausibility is an essential criterion for drawing readers into a story of over 300 pages and so many characters. As the back cover aptly sums up, it features a \u00absenseless event\u00bb: in June 2021, a plane splits up. With 243 people on board. And so, 243 \u00abdoubles\u00bb land in exactly the same place, three months after the arrival of flight AF006 Paris-New York. The novel catapults us into the shoes of eleven of these characters, first before the flight, then after the landing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But the journey itself is not the book's main interest. We also meet the experts responsible for managing the task force<\/em> whose mission is to come up with a coherent explanation to avoid panic among the population. Beings present on Earth in duplicate - can you imagine the kind of excesses that could lead to? And of course, we'll also have to limit the psychological damage to the passengers, confronted with their double with whom they'll have to share their entourage, their savings, their material possessions... In short, all the logistical and\/or philosophical problems that the appearance of a double that is none other than ourselves can create.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u00abThe head of Psychological Operations is worried. The straight road hates the pothole and the obscure hates the unexplained. The immobility of the Law stubbornly clashes with the waltz of the cosmos and the advance of knowledge. Where in the Torah, the New Testament, the Koran or other revealed texts can we find the slightest sentence, ambiguous sura or obscure verse, which predicts or justifies the appearance in the sky of an airplane identical in every way to another, which landed three months earlier?\u00bb<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n\n\n

The secret life of doubles<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

This last theme is the common thread running through Herv\u00e9 Le Tellier's work. Even if it remains difficult to define unequivocally. In each story within a story, we discover a hidden facet of the characters' lives, be it a shameful passion, dark aggressions kept secret, a panic fear of old age, an unassumed sexuality or even a double life. While some secrets will be taken to the protagonists' graves, others will come to light. But what they all have in common is that they are likely to make these eleven human beings reflect on the choices they have made in their lives, sometimes inspiring shame or guilt.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The enthusiasm I felt when I read this book also stemmed from one central point: the humor. How funny this book is! Mixing sarcasm, wordplay, irony about topical issues and comical situations arising from the little everyday frustrations we all experience, this serious subject is approached in a spirit of playfulness. This is certainly due to the author's pleasure in imagining and writing this story<\/a>. A member of the Oulipo, this playful treatment does not exempt him from literary constraints<\/a>. The book is very well documented on a number of subjects, including physics, religious history and international relations. This fusion of various disciplines, coupled with the abundance of literary genres, can give the impression of an exploded novel, strongly reminiscent of surrealism. While this will be highly enjoyable for some - I love it! -others may find themselves lost among the concepts of a Le Tellier whose aim is not to offer explanations to the reader, but to leave him or her to seek answers for themselves...if they exist at all.<\/p>\n\n\n\n