He is the writer who most popularized “non-fiction” in France in the early 2000s, a genre better known in the Anglo-Saxon world since In cold blood by Truman Capote, published in 1965.
While covering as a journalist the trial of Jean-Claude Romand, this man who murdered his entire family in 1993 to prevent them from discovering a life of lies, Emmanuel Carrère probably did not suspect that the shock book he was going to draw, The opponent, would mark a break in his work. This great lover of science fiction and fantasy, who had his revelation as a writer with Lovecraft and Philip K. Dick, who experienced his first successes with novels like The moustache Or Snow class, was no longer going to return to fiction after his meeting with Romand. I can’t help but ask him, in a discussion we have on screen, if he misses writing pure fiction. “I would miss it a lot as a reader, but not at all as an author,” says the man who found his niche.
After The opponentits avid readers, including me, know the rest: A Russian novel, Other lives than mine, Limonov, The kingdom, Yoga And V13. All stories, sometimes inspired by reports, that we read in one go because they captivate us so much. The recent publication of the first volume of his works chosen from the Quarto de Gallimard collection was an opportunity to return to his vision of writing and journalism. Among other things, on the use of “I”, much criticized in an era of wild opinions. I believe that when used correctly, it is a question of honesty.
“I agree,” replies Carrère. Well, you are accused of narcissism, of egocentrism, and it is not false, there is a part of that and I do not deny it. But that’s not all, it’s not even the main thing. The essential thing is both honesty and at the same time what seems contradictory with narcissism; humility, which consists of saying that what I am telling you here is not the revealed truth, it is not the point of view of History, or of God, it is the point of view about the little guy that I am, with his limitations, his prejudices, his ignorance, it’s only me who tells you that. It is completely impure, this mixture which makes an “I”, which is something very composite. »
Carrère believes that this is far from being an easy option, which he defends in an article on Janet Malcolm which can be found in this Quarto. Malcolm believes that the relationship between a nonfiction author and his subject is dishonest and nothing can be done about it. “I say that we can do something about it,” writes Carrère. That there is a border and that this border does not pass, as some would like to believe, between the status of journalist – hasty, superficial, unscrupulous – and that of writer – profound noble, full of moral scruples –, but between authors who believe they are above what they say and those who accept the uncomfortable idea of being a part of it. »
PHOTO BERNARD BRAULT, LA PRESSE ARCHIVES
Emmanuel Carrère during his visit to the Montreal Book Fair in 2014
All the same, over time, he must have developed a form of ethics, I imagine, when he wrote, for example, about the bereavements and illnesses of the people he talks about in Other lives than mine (my favorite, which made me cry non-stop) or on the victims of the attacks of January 13, 2015 in Paris in V13. What limits does he refuse to cross?
We have all the rights to what we say about ourselves. I can heap the worst criticism on myself and I will eventually be accused of complacency, but I can absolutely write whatever I want about myself. On the others, it’s something else. And there, I think there is an absolute rule which is to do no harm. I say this especially since I happened to transgress this rule, and I regret it.
Emmanuel Carrère
We of course think of A Russian novel where he exhibited his partner at the time and his mother, the historian Hélène Carrère d’Encausse. “Yes, I definitely crossed a line that I think should not be crossed, with regard to two people,” he admits. Well, it didn’t produce disasters in either case, I reconciled with my mother after two years of very cold weather, and Sophie, my partner at the time, was angry with me. a while, but we kept in touch. But I still did violence to them, that’s for sure, and it’s something I haven’t done again. »
And he sometimes pursues friendships with the people whose lives he has written about. “In reality, I am a little autistic,” notes the writer who revealed having received a diagnosis of bipolarity in Yoga. It’s not that other people don’t interest me, but there are people who have a spontaneous relationship with others. This is not my case and it is not a question of shyness. Basically, writing books is my way of reaching out to others. The readers, but also the people I’m writing the book with, I would say. It’s my way of having access to others. »
Post-reality
The question of reality is often raised when we talk about Carrère. In 2018, a large collective work on his work published by POL was entitled Breaking into reality and this Quarto is called Towards reality. Without regret, the writer decided to discard some of his first books prior to The opponent which he finds less interesting. On the other hand, we can read biographical references embellished with photos and he has selected several reports published left and right of which he is proud. Emmanuel Carrère has never stopped practicing journalism, while being aware of having a privileged place in it.
“I really like it,” he confides. But I benefit from conditions that completely disappear. Because of my age, my status, all that, I have the possibility of writing very long articles and that is very important for me, because if you want, I don’t particularly bring information. What I bring is a kind of way of telling stories, by twisting and turning around the bush, and for that, you need space, and also enough money to be able to do reports. I have this chance, but which is becoming an extremely rare luxury, to be able to practice this journalism which was quite common when I was young, in conditions which almost no longer exist. »
With the parallel proliferation of fake news, one wonders if we are not in a period where we are at odds with reality, precisely.
Yes, we were talking about post-modernism before, which has become something very old and ancient, but we have entered a bit into post-reality.
Emmanuel Carrère
Only one thing bothers him in this Quarto project, of which he is preparing the second volume: he cannot fit in his incredible biography of Philip K. Dick, I am alive and you are dead, so I show him my original copy from 1993 with Robert Crumb’s drawing of Dick. “Ah, but you have a “collector”! “, he says, laughing.
“I feel like this book says a lot more about reality or the disappearance of reality than when it was written. It’s not me who’s prophetic, it’s Dick who was. Today we live in Dick’s world, this kind of twisting universe where we no longer know where we are. »
Moreover, his next project will focus on the war in Ukraine, his Russian family roots, in a mixture of the intimate and the geopolitical, he explains. “I think Russia has almost become a dystopia, a parallel universe to ours where truth and reality are not the same. »
There may need to be a third volume of his works from Quarto, and I’m not the one who’s going to complain about that.
Towards reality – selected works
Quarto/Gallimard
1021 pages