Cette centieme ecriture, je te la dedies, a toi, qui m'a tant encouragee a devenir une blogueuse! Regarde ce que tu as fais de moi....car ce blog, nous l'avons ecrit ensemble. Derriere moi, tu me corrigeais. Tu transformais mes paragraphes en lecture lisible. Jamais tu n'as fait une suggestion de sujet, et seulement une fois tu as refuse de me publier. Car tu me publies, c'est toi l'editeur technique, avec pour aide ton beau-frere, mon mari, qui touche a la technique quand tu t'absentes. Tu es la seule a m'editer. En de rares occasions, tu n'as pas pu le faire, ou alors tu as juge le texte lisible, alors il a ete publie "tout cru", comme celui ci. Une surprise!
Je redige en Francais car le sujet se prete a cette langue. Nous parlons ici de literature francaise. Tu vois bien ou je veux en venir! Nous en avons discute tellement de fois, toi qui es convaincue que la literature francaise est en convalescence. J'ai toujours pense le contraire et je me suis mise a une tache cet ete, c'est de decouvrir les auteurs francais contemporains.
Mon ete a donc commence avec le plus evident: Le Clezio, le prix Nobel. J'ai repris Le Desert que j'avais lu il y a vingt ans. J'ai ete decue, une adulte ennuyee par des descriptions rebarbatives.
J'ai ensuite lu Rouault, Champs d'Honneur. J'ai hesite devant la couverture mais c'est un laureat du prix Goncourt. Ici, j'ai ete surprise par l'humour et la nostalgie de l'auteur. Ensemble, avec Annie Ernaux (La Honte, La Place), je me suis retrouvee au coeur de la France, celle de Maupassant et de Zola, mais a l'epoque de Pompidou. La France dont je sentais encore les odeurs des annees 60 dans les dernieres editions de Jours de France.
J'ai pris du Houellebecq, a contre coeur, peut etre pour te prouver que meme le plus cynique, le plus meprisable des auteurs francais est aussi talentueux. Dans "Particules Elementaires", il choque, mais pas avec autant de crudite que dans Plateforme! Mis a part son cote provocateur, sa narrative est collante, elle t'oblige a le suivre. Son talent est celle d'un conteur (seulement dans ce roman, pas dans ceux qui succedent).
Autant dire que c'est une parodie car Houellebecq est certainement un ecrivain litteraire. Ignorons les sujets et les details vicieux et passons a l'essentiel: son style et sa facon de captiver ses lecteurs.
Ensuite il y a eu cette femme qui lisait un livre a couverture multicolore dans le bus. Je l'ai abordee alors que je ne parle jamais a personne. J'avais reconnu le livre pour l'avoir vu partout dans les librairies. Elle m'a dit que c'etait passionant et que le nom a resonnance anglosaxon etait bien celle d'une ecrivaine francaise. J'ai donc achete "les yeux jaunes des crocodiles" de Katherine Pancol. Dans un autre bus, je l'ai commence. Des son incipit, je l'ai adore. Je me dedie a le lire au plus vite avant mon depart pour te l'envoyer par courrier suisse, au dessus des flots atlantiques qui nous separent.
Cinq auteurs francais differents pourraient-ils te convaincre du caractere dynamique de la litterature francaise contemporaine? Renonces tu a decrier la passivite d'un art toujours tres vivant?
Je rentre a Dubai avec du Marguerite Duras, du Colette aussi a relire. De la litterature moderne qui a inspire tout ces nouveaux ecrivains. Je serais toujours prete a reprendre un defi! Tu es Charlotte Bronte et moi Emily?
When a blog becomes emotional and personal,it is time to turn it to a private site,and change it to a form of a book or diary that can be published.
ReplyDeleteIn business,it is not uncommon for a public company to turn private when the time is ripe!
Just finished reading a 500 page volume of "Museum of Innocence" by my favorite Turkish author and Nobel laureate. As much as I enjoyed reading "Istanbul" which mirrored my childhood and teen years in Beyrouth,this new book was a crazy description of mid seventies Istanbul. This time it mirrored the Tehran society of the same time period .
ReplyDeleteI wandered with the elite of Istanbul, and lived the pathetic love story of a 30 something petit-bourgois Istanbuli and his mad infatuation with a younger girl from a lower class!
His sick love life,with hot sexual scenes,his detailed description of the social life of the nouveau riche,and the parallel allusion to the political transition between Attaturk and today's Ardoghan islamic republic,makes his memories a monument of a " Museum of Innocence"!
Will it make a series for a popular Turkish soap opera to be shown dubbed on the TV screens of the sexually-frustrated Middle East masses? Wait and see.
Last night we were invited to a dear friend's beautiful villa in Monaco
ReplyDeleteThere were may be 15 people including us,and some Turkish visitor and an Iranian couple who have been living in Dubai for 10 years,and have just bought a villa in Roquebrune.
When dinner was served,an elderly Turkish gentleman dressed in simple sports clothes,sat beside me. Having filled his plate with goodies from the Persian table,he was praising the hospitality of the hosts,and their beautiful garden in the midst of the Monegasque concrete.
He asked me about Dubai and its difficulties,and I expressed my surprise that he has not visited yet despite the fact he was an avid golfer.He also wanted my opinion about the Palestinian question and we both agreed that it was a difficult issue,though he remarked that everything has to come to an end.
The gentleman was accompanied by an interesting charming old lady,who was described as his companion,the captain of his sail boat that was moored in Cannes,a nurse and a driver.The captain was excited to describe the 150 feet schooner built in Turkey, that will be shown in the
Monaco boat show.
The jolly unpretentious gentleman then started asking interesting questions to the young 12 year old son of the Iranian couple about his extracurricular activities.When the boy said violin and tennis,the wiseman told him that he should take up golf because he can meet important people,and a sea sport like sailing or horse back riding :sports that will remain with him.
I immediately thought of my own grandson and how Dubai and the enthusiasm of his mother have allowed him to practice much more.
All through the dinner,we were joking and telling small stories about life.It was as if I had met the gentleman all my life.I told him that I have read Orhan Pamuk's three books and that I enjoyed "Istanbul" the most because it reminded me of my childhood in Beirut!He told me that Pamuk's father had worked for his father,and that Orhan was definitely an eccentric.I said that was shown in his latest book " The Museum of Innocence".
He finally asked me what I did in life,and after I explained,he congratulated me for raising a happy and healthy family,and told me that he had three boys and few grandchildren.
At the end of the evening,the Turkish group squeezed themselves into a rented van,and drove back to Cannes.
The Turkish man turned out to be Rahmi Koc,80 years old, and one of the wealthiest man in Turkey!