Left Bank laurels for an American

  We witnessed a fascinating episode in the field of Franco-American one-upmanship today.  Jonathan Littell, an American who writes in French,  clinched his conquest of the Paris publishing world by winning le Prix Goncourt, the top literary award. His epic novel, les Bienveillantes (The Kindly Ones) was the first by a native English-speaker to win the 103-year-old prize.

The 900-page book,  an account of the wartime massacres of Jews written in the voice of a retired SS Colonel,  has taken the French literary world by storm since August. It won the grand prix de l'Académie Française last month and it is the number one best seller, with over 250,000 copies sold.
   

Littell, 39, a humanitarian worker who has spent a decade in war zones, grew up in France before attending Yale university. He chose to write in the language because his literary heroes -- Stendhal and Flaubert --  are French and because he found French more suited to the sensibilities of his subject. Gallimard, his publishers,  helped him iron out Anglicisms in the text which they initially thought would only sell about 12,000 copies. Since then they have drawn on paper that had been in reserve for the next Harry Potter. 

The author, who had only once before tried his hand at fiction, at the age of 20, failed to turn up at the Druant restaurant where the Goncourt jury traditionally summons its laureates to receive their award.  Littell had earlier voiced disapproval of prizes and had said that he would stay at home in Barcelona.

Antoine Gallimard,  the publisher, told the jury that his absence was not intended as a slight. "He does not need publicity -- out of modesty and also because he believes that litterature is not part of show business. What is important is the book."

Littell has cultivated something of a mystique with his reluctance to face interviews. His shy manner and boyish looks -- complete with earring -- have become familiar as the media have lapped up his overnight success.

The critics have raved over the book, which is a huge contrast with the usual minimalist style favoured by modern French novelists. Some have compared it to Tolstoy and Victor Hugo. Most have praised the power with which Littell conveys the experience of Colonel Max Aue, an ordinary executive of the Holocaust.  Edmonde Charles-Roux, the President of the Goncourt jury, said that Littell's absence was no problem. "You cannot pass over such a monumental work. The vote was very definitive. Very violent, with some in favour and others against." The book won by seven votes to three in the first round.   

The choice of  subject has caused unease in some quarters. Florent Brayard, an historian, last week complained that Littell had failed to observe the unwritten rules of writing about the Holocaust. He summarised these as accuracy and dignity.

Littell writes in longhand. He is producing an English-language version of Les Bienveillantes for publication in 2008. The US and British rights were sold last month for a figure rumoured to be more than a million dollars. 

I took the book to read on holiday last week. It is hard work at times, but powerful, gruesome and fascinating.   
 
   

Comments

[Terry Empson]

If, as I hope, Littell's book is published in the UK in English, care must be taken over the title given to it. "The Kindly Ones" was used by Anthony Powell in 1962 fo the sixth volume of A Dance to the Music of Time. All twelve volumes of this are still very much in print/in demand

[Sedulia]

I'd translate it "The Well-wishers".

[Roger Goodacre]

I imagine that the lunch in fact took place at Drouant, in the imposing Louis XVI style salon Goncourt, rather than at Drouot, unless the Prix Goncourt is now an auction ..

[James Stanhope]

Re: Translation of the novel's title, "Les Bienveillantes" --

In the French title of his novel, isn't Jonathan Littell alluding to the ancient Greek term (and title of one of Aeschylus's tragedies), "Eumenides"? "Les bienveillantes" is a frequent French translation of that Greek euphemism for the goddesses of vengeance (the Furies or Erinyes). In Aeschylus's trilogy, the "Oresteia," the "Eumenides" is the title of the final play, in which the protagonist Orestes, who murdered his mother, is finally saved from blood-vengeance to be meted out by the Eumenides/Furies, by being acquitted by the vote of the goddess Athena (presiding over a hung jury of Athenians).

If Jonathan Littell is alluding to Aeschylus's play, then perhaps Littell's title could be translated "The Furies." Perhaps Littell's protagonist Max Aue is writing his memoirs as a kind of vindication addressed to what Aue, with the outlook of a narcissistic Nazi, might hope would be a more detached audience who would protect him from vengeance. I haven't read Littell's novel. This is just a thought, upon reading the title.

[Roger Goodacre]

James Stanhope's thesis sounds plausible, but to translate the title as 'The Furies' surely fails to convey the irony contained in 'Les Bienveillantes'.

[James Stanhope]

In response to Roger Goodacre: That's true. "The Furies" is too simplistic and misses the irony. The English title, "The Kindly Ones," is, or used to be, the common English-language classroom translation of Aeschylus's title "Eumenides." I assume that "The Kindly Ones" is Littell's own proposed translation of "Les Bienveillantes." Until I actually read Littell's novel, I don't want to push the allusion to Aeschylus beyond the title. Aeschylus's play is both a dispute/debate over the appropriateness of the different kinds of retributive justice and also an argument for incorporating retributive justice as a force supporting civilized order. If Littell's character Max Aue really is without remorse, I'd be surprised if he endorses retributive justice. I will have to read the novel first.

[kerstin hallert]

Beware of this book, very precise on details as for the inessentials while hardly convincing in the essentials.
Incredible that the marketing of that blurred idea that History should cater to the expectations of today was so easily bought by the French Academy and the Prix Goncourt. This work is of that new
school of that Da Vinci Code book let alone the film by Sofia Coppola on Marie Antoinette.
The mustard is going up my nose.

[pierre gruneberg]

I am a german jew who left germany in 1933.( heureusement ).I am now 75...I heard Pivot , the french critic talk about the book , j'ai aussitôt voulu l'acheter , j'ai pris plusieurs fois le train ( au lieu de l'avion )pour pouvoir lire ce livre qui est un chef d'oeuvre absolu..je ne l'ai pas quitté ...quel talent ..quelle émotion ..si Jonathan aime skier ou nager, je serais heureux de
l'aider dans la pratique de ces deux sports que j'exerce professionellement !
il pourra cliquer sur mon nom comme j'ai cliqué sur le sien...j'admire aussi son engagement humanitaire.