In Eugene and I, the novel she has just published (ed. Albin Michel), Katherine Pancol takes her two heroines to Paris, Mexico and Saint-Tropez. But it is from New York, where she lived for about ten years, that the journalist and writer chose to speak to us.
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GEO.fr: You lived in New York in the 1980s. How do you remember that time?
Katherine Pancol: After the release of my first novel, Me first, I decided to leave Paris. I then left nose to the wind for New York. On the plane, I had the chance to meet a very nice girl who hosted me. She had, in Lexington Avenue, an apartment where writers, directors, painters passed… A real very nice beehive! I then looked for an apartment and, since I couldn’t afford to live like her on the upscale Upper East Side, I moved downtown, to SoHo, in lower Manhattan. The district was not yet fashionable and you could stay in large workshops for a bite of bread. I myself sublet a loft in a building where broke artists lived – I ran into Paul Auster, who lived on West Broadway, two blocks down. I went from subletting to subletting, staying within this perimeter. In exchange for keeping a cat or walking a dog, the rent was often cheaper. This district was like a village, populated by craftsmen who have disappeared today.
How did you end up on the infamous Lower East Side afterward?
Two years later, the franc was devalued against the dollar and SoHo became too expensive for me. I moved to the Lower East Side, a district then little considered, in fact, in a large inexpensive loft. I always had a twenty dollar bill with me to give away, in case of a bad encounter with a drug addict in need. French friends who came to New York did not stay with me for long, they quickly left for the hotel! At first terrified, I got used to it and ended up loving this place. I wrote a lot at night and sometimes I went downstairs to a grocery store that remained open where I laughed with the prostitutes on my avenue. We discussed the difficulties of our respective jobs. They found mine more difficult!
When you go back there, what do you like to do most of all?
I usually stay with friends, but when I feel like writing and being alone, I settle in at the Marlton Hotel in Greenwich Village, between Fifth and Sixth avenues. The rooms are small, cozy and I feel like I am in a 19th century guesthouse. I buy New York Magazine and I put together a program of exhibitions and shows. I love the Guggenheim Museum, the Whitney Museum and also a tiny chapel, the Louise Nevelson Chapel of the Good Shepherd, in St. Peter’s Lutheran Church on Lexington Avenue. There, we escape the hustle and bustle of the city. The decor of the walls was carved from white wood by artist Louise Nevelson. This beautiful and peaceful place, which is a work of art in itself, is always deserted.
What makes the soul of New York for you?
Its cosmopolitanism and its paradoxes. We meet both conservatives and eccentrics. I recently saw a man put down his things and go for a jog completely naked! Moreover, in this city, since 1992, women have the right to walk with their breasts open, which places them on an equal footing with men, who may be shirtless. But what I love most about this city is its crazy energy. You have the feeling that anything is possible there, that no one is going to stop you, to discourage you. To be in New York is to put your fingers in the socket. This city makes me feel good, it connects me to life.
???? In images, in pictures : New York by subway with writer Douglas Kennedy.
➤ “Article published in the GEO magazine of January 2021 (n ° 503, Reunion).
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Read also :
⋙ VIDEO – From New York to Paris, 5 minutes with writer Douglas Kennedy
⋙ New York in panoramic
⋙ The life of animals, hidden side of New York
⋙ Warming: New York is strengthening in the face of rising waters
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