Here is the first controversy of the literary start, in this year which was sorely lacking… A controversial choice, since it concerns the most prestigious of the prizes, the Goncourt. France Inter discovered that the author of one of the sixteen titles preselected by the jury is none other than the companion of one of the jurors …
The novel Cadillac children, published by Gallimard, was indeed written by François Noudelmann, author of numerous essays, who directs the French House at New York University and is a friend of Camille Laurens, also an excellent novelist and recently arrived at Goncourt. The book is also dedicated to CL …
“The conflict of interest has been ruled out”
The matter did not escape the jury, but they preferred to ignore it. “Yes, they are together, said Didier Decoin, president of the jury. We felt that was no reason to penalize a good book. “ Continuing: “There was a majority of us who had appreciated this book, and who discovered after the fact that there was a link between François Noudelmann and Camille Laurens, about whom she was questioned. There was a vote to say that yes, we could include the book, that it was not an ethical or deontological problem, which would be the case if it came from a spouse, a descendant, an ascendant. And he gathered a majority that allowed him to be in the selection. For the Academy, the conflict of interest has been ruled out. “
However, the case risks tarnishing the coat of arms of Goncourt, already often accused (like other literary awards) to give in to the sirens of the most influential publishers. Even if the Galligrasseuil system (the price being suspected of often returning to Gallimard, Grasset, Le Seuil) has lead in the wing. Publishing being a small environment, publishers, novelists, journalists, award jurors often meet there and change hats on occasion. Bernard Pivot had therefore instituted within Goncourt the rule according to which the jurors of Goncourt should not be employees of a publisher …
A criticism of rare virulence
If the controversy is already embarrassing, it comes to spice up another element. Indeed, in his weekly column of World of Books dated September 17, has Camille Laurens performed a proper dismantling of Anne Berest’s last book, Postcard (Grasset). A moving and addicting book, in which Anne Berest retraces the tragic journey of her family during the Shoah and engages in deep reflections on Jewishness and the weight of this heritage.
In this article that starts with “When you’re a writer and critic, you hesitate to talk about a book you don’t like”, the writer does not allow herself to be suffocated for long by scruples. The reproaches, of rare virulence, concern both form and substance: “When the author stupidly questions her mother, you would think you were reading the Shoah for dummies” ; she writes. “ Little endowed with real empathy for the characters ”, “Short sentences in the present tense, almost without subordinates”.
Criticism even turns to personal attack, through sentences like “The author, expert in Parisian chic” Where “Anne enters the gas chamber with her big red-soled clogs” …
This column has in any case panicked the Parisian microcosm. The unease is further aggravated by the fact that in his book, François Noudelmann also deals with the fate of his persecuted Jewish ancestors …
However, the books are both on the Goncourt list. Corn Postcard enjoys greater public success and many laudatory articles … From there to seeing another conflict of interest, there is only one step.
Lack of fellowship
Didier Decoin in any case let it be known that he did not appreciate these attacks against a book distinguished by the jury of Goncourt, and that he expected more solidarity between the jurors.
It is not the first time, in any case, that Camille Laurens, author of novels tinged with autofiction very noticed, like Romance Where The one you believe, shows a certain lack of brotherhood. In 2007, she accused her colleague Marie Darrieussecq of “psychic plagiarism”. This one, in Tom is dead, told the loss of a child, a pain that she had not experienced, while she herself had told the story of this tragedy, which had really happened to her, in Philippe. The two women being published by POL, the publisher Paul Otchakovsky-Laurens had sided with Marie Darrieussecq. Camille Laurens is now published by Gallimard …
Everyone is already wondering who will or will not be excluded from the next Goncourt list… Continuation of the series on October 5.
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