Twelfth and last book of the great cycle around the character of Isaac Sidel, Grand Froid review was translated and published this fall by Editions Rivages. Forty-five years after the first novel about this figure, Blue Eyes (Blue eyes in French), Jerome Charyn closes the adventures of son of the bronx crowning it President of the United States. Always armed with his glock, the former police officer will have to face a new labyrinth, and not the least: that of the White House and its political maneuvers of all kinds.
I wanted my character of Isaac Sidel to end up in the White House because he is like a Don Quixote with his glock, and so far it cannot change much. He dances in the White House.
(Jerome Charyn)
The White House is a labyrinth, the writing exercise is a labyrinth, my life is a labyrinth, America is a labyrinth. We are trying to crawl out of this labyrinth … I, unlike Isaac Sidel, have no glock, I only have words, a pen.
(Jerome Charyn)
Jerome Charyn was born in 1937 in the Bronx and grew up under the protection of an older brother, Harvey Charyn, who would later introduce him to the new york crime world at the heart of its Detective novels.
Twelve novels, from Blue Zyeux at Grand Froid review, Passing by Mad Marilyn or Isaac the mysterious, develop the ascent ofIsaac Sidel, this city character embodying the spirit of new york, successively street child, inspector, police chief of the NYPD, mayor of New York and finally President of the United States. Tasty mixture holding both a Fantômas, of a Lew Archer and a Don Quixote modern, the hero will be in this volume confronted with new threats: an oppressive administration, republicans and billionaires concerned about his social policy or a gang of former convicts of the Gulag led by a certain Viktor, tattoo artist. The opportunity to tell a story as incredible as it is pleasant, and to evoke the socio-political issues of the United States today. It is also the shadow of Abraham Lincoln who returns in this novel, a president admired by Jerome Charyn and to whom he has already devoted a book: I, Abraham (Payot and Rivages, 2015).
Lincoln was a great president of the United States. He came from poor origins, was selfless and understood that the world had to change. It took him a long time to educate himself before he in turn could help the world. Lincoln was not only a great president, he was also a great writer.
(Jerome Charyn)
Note also his latest collaboration in the form of a comic with François Boucq, after The Magician’s Wife (1986, awarded at the Angoulême Festival the same year), Devil’s mouth (1999) and Little Tulip (2014) : New York Cannibals explores the world of tattooing in a setting that is reminiscent of the adventures of our Isaac Sidel.
It was François Boucq who introduced me to this idea of tattoo. The tattoo artist writes a novel about the bodies of his subjects, these Russian gangsters write their lives on their bodies. It is a very powerful language.
(Jerome Charyn)
I grew up on the streets. When I discovered Joyce, what struck me was the musicality of his phrases. I also found music in the images of François Boucq … I think that drawing has magical virtues.
(Jerome Charyn)