In her new opus soaked in rock, in bookstores this Wednesday, the Belgian star novelist stages the fusional relationship between two sisters, exacerbated by indifferent parents who should not have been. Above all, between the lines of this sisters bookwe perceive some sensitive strings of the author, who was kind enough to make them vibrate in our company.
Posted at 6:00 a.m.
In the beginning, there is this mad love between Nora and Florent, a couple as whimsical as they are hermetic. From this union were born, more by social obligation than by real desire, Tristane and Laetitia. For lack of parental consideration, the two sisters can only count on their abilities, their resourcefulness, the connivance of their cousin Cosette, but above all on an unwavering sisterly complicity. To set off on the highway of life, they will also bet very heavily on the Tires, their rock group destined to leave their mark on the musical landscape – a route punctuated by intersections, entrance ramps and exit. Nothing to shake the inextricable union of the sassy female duo, portrayed with the quirky style specific to Nothomb, who wanted, a year after a resounding tribute to his father (first blood), sing an ode to the inseparable sisters of this world.
“What was important to me above all was to describe the love that can unite two sisters, what this fusional relationship can lead to as a consequence in a life, even if I know that it does not happen like this between all the sisters of the world. ‘universe’, confesses the writer, specifying that she maintains inextricable ties with her older sister – the novel does not, however, describe their specific story, seeking rather to restore the intensity of a love so powerful that it supplants, his eyes, those of a soul mate.
I experience other forms of love, but I am very marked by the one experienced with my sister since my birth. It is even stronger than parental love, and even stronger than amorous love.
Amelie Nothomb
Rock solid links
Tristane and Laetitia will show themselves to be all the more united as their parents seem to ignore them superbly, as “parents-fortresses”, as Amélie Nothomb describes them, who wants to reassure us: hers were loving.
Fortunately, there is Tires, a mind-blowing musical project and center of gravity of the protagonists. And the choice of a rock repertoire is not trivial, since the author admits to being fond of saturated guitars. “At my funeral, I want the song played Lateralus from the metal band Tool, it will be a wonderful ceremony, I recommend you to be there! “, projects the one who would rather have liked to be a rock star than a literary star. “I would have infinitely preferred to be a rocker rather than a writer. The relationship between a rock singer and his audience is something so strong. Unfortunately, you don’t choose your talent, but it’s already not so bad to be a writer who, in addition, has the favor of the public, ”she admits.
Complexes and complexity
“Words have the power we give them”, is recalled, in abyss, in this touching story; a double-edged power, saving as well as destroying. Thus, from an early age, Tristane drags like a ball and chain a complex linked to his glasses, maintained then dissolved by silence and the words of others. Amélie Nothomb would she have been confronted herself with a few little imps of conscience? “An unhappy word, even said by the best-meaning parents in the world, can produce deleterious effects”, indicates the one who has long mistakenly believed that her parents did not find her pretty.
In Tristane’s case, her mother’s tragedy is that apart from her husband’s love, she feels absolutely nothing, and this emptiness degenerates into real cruelty.
Amelie Nothomb
And his Belgianness? Could she have been a stumbling block for this woman of letters who conquered France? “It’s true that I had to fight against it, but it went pretty well in my case,” she says. The standoffs mainly took place with his publishers, who hallucinated belgicisms in his turns of phrase, whereas these stemmed rather from his very particular style. “All the proofreaders said: ‘Maybe in Belgium they say things like that, but not in France’, and each time I replied: ‘But it’s not Belgian… it’s Amélie Nothomb !” That said, she remains an ardent defender of specifically Belgian words, including her favorites “brol” (barda, bazaar) and “toyette” (who likes to play), which she would like to see flourish in France.
Another perceptible chord in The sisters book : Cousin Cosette’s anorexia, leading to an unexpected tragicomic ending. An evil described with such relevance that one suspects the author, having often included the subject in previous writings, of having already come to grips with it. “I was extremely anorexic as a teenager and almost died of it,” she confirms. It’s a real miracle that I survived. So I also wanted to remind you that it can kill. “And dying in the unexpected way described in the book, “it seems to me an excellent metaphor for anorexia”, judges the novelist.
Even for those who did not know it, sisterly love should have a particular resonance, and very rock’n’roll, under the pen of this unclassifiable writer.
The sisters book
Amelie Nothomb
196 pages
Albin Michael