{"id":512409,"date":"2022-09-20T06:00:00","date_gmt":"2022-09-20T04:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/leregardlibre.com\/?p=512409"},"modified":"2022-11-13T14:48:43","modified_gmt":"2022-11-13T13:48:43","slug":"galel-le-christ-et-la-montagne","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/leregardlibre.com\/en\/literature\/galel-le-christ-et-la-montagne\/","title":{"rendered":"\u00abGalel, Christ and the mountain"},"content":{"rendered":"

Galel<\/em>, Fanny Desarzens' first novel takes us into the marvellous but perilous daily life of three mountaineers in the midst of their ascent.two guides and a hut keeper.<\/strong> A a little timeless work<\/strong> to read at their own pace.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

Author Fanny Desarzens is almost thirty years old. From Lausanne, you might say - from Gros-de-Vaud, more really. Several of her short stories have already been published, but Galel<\/em> is his first novel. It is published by Slatkine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During the F\u00eate du Livre in Saint-Pierre-de-Clages, Valais, I met Fanny Desarzens at the Village du Livre, where we had a chance to chat about her baby, born a few months earlier. This little book tells the story of three men who live and feel the mountains to the depths of their guts. There are two guides, Jonas and Galel. The third, Paul, is a hut keeper. Their friendship blossomed up there, in a refuge called La Ba\u00efta.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Every year, they get together to talk about their walking season. They recount their adventures and their daily lives with the tourists they guide. They eat a piece of bread patiently baked by Paul, accompany it with a piece of alpine cheese, drink wine, build a fire, look at the stars and leave. What they share stays at the top of the mountain.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Walk until you can't<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

For Fanny Desarzens, talking about the daily lives of these guides - their happy routines, but also those that break down - was not really a conscious choice, she tells us during our interview. Two factors may have prompted her to embark on this story. Firstly, a love of the mountains that began in her childhood, when her family roamed the Valais trails. Then, much later, she met a guide whose story moved her: a man whose job it is to walk. Until the day he couldn't anymore. \u00abGuides are people who open paths, who accompany people from point A to point B. I find that very beautiful. I find that very beautiful. That's why I started describing mountains.\u00bb<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, the story is not rooted in real topography. Rather, it's a collection of mountains that the woman from Lausanne has traveled through and brought together in a single place in her novel. \u00abI wanted to leave room for readers\u201c imaginations. What matters to me is not ONE mountain in particular, but rather \u201dthe idea of the mountain\u00bb.\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Aligning words in cadence<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

And these slopes, these peaks, these colors, these atmospheres, Fanny Desarzens describes them in the manner of Ramuz. \u00abI know, it's not very original. But yes, he's MY literary reference.\u00bb The repetition of certain words is a matter of course. So is the \u00abspoken\u00bb language:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u00abOf course I do. This way of aligning words was a question of rhythm. I open the book with walkers climbing a mountain. I wanted to reproduce the cadence of walking. One foot in front of the other, it's necessarily repetition.\u00bb<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

The question is, why do these three men walk? Why do they feel the need to climb the peaks so relentlessly, all summer long? Is it an escape? \u00abNo, I don't think it's an escape,\u00bb replies the Vaudoise. \u00abThey've just found the environment in which they really feel good. Where they're themselves. And just because you walk somewhere doesn't necessarily mean you're running away. What we're looking for is a state of happiness. Walking makes that possible.\u00bb<\/p>\n\n\n\n