Archive for January 11, 2011

PUBLIC ENEMIES by Bernard-Henri Levy and Michel Houellebecq

Originally published in 2008 in France, the newly released English translation of PUBLIC ENEMIES: DUELING WRITERS TAKE ON EACH OTHER AND THE WORLD doesn’t quite deliver the literary death match promised in the subtitle. That is, rather than a frenzied cockfight between two writers the French love to hate – the writers in question, Bernard-Henri Lévy and Michel Houellebecq are both controversial superstars in France –this collection of letters is something far better: a measured exchange between two thoughtful (and thought-provoking) writers on a wide range of philosophical issues. And while the letters lack the intimacy and the casual, almost incidental, handling of the abstract that often characterizes published correspondence–indeed, Lévy and Houellebecq aren’t friends; the correspondence was initiated with an eye to publication, a fact that mars the book with an off-putting self-consciousness – the exploration of topics as wide-ranging as the social and political obligations of the writer, the purpose and desirability of confessional literature, our all too human need to be liked, the perils of fame, Baudelaire, Nietzsche, Schopenhauer, divine breath and the life source, the void, the nothingness, render the book fascinating.

January 11, 2011 · Judi Clark · No Comments
Tags: , ,  Â· Posted in: France, Non-fiction, Writing Life