After the flood, the construction of the Tower of Babel and the Egypt of the pharaohs, Éric-Emmanuel Schmitt continues his admirable and crazy Crossing times. In The light of happinessfourth volume where we follow the adventures of the immortal Noam, the writer takes us to the Greece of the Ve and IVe centuries before Christ.
In the third volume of The crossing of times, Dark sun, Éric-Emmanuel Schmitt abandoned Noam and Noura to a cruel fate. Condemned to die in a pyramid by the will of Noura, with whom Noam continues over the millennia a toxic relationship that is increasingly tiring for the reader, the lovers come back to life in the heart of ancient Greece… that the writer and philosopher knows as if he had lived there. Derek, Noam’s naughty half-brother, and Tibor, Noura’s father, also come along for the ride in surprising circumstances.
Cradle of democracy, philosophy, theater and the Olympic Games, the Hellenic Republic allows Noam and Noura to meet fascinating historical figures that Schmitt takes pleasure in bringing down from their pedestals in order to present them in all their complexity – for example At times, the line becomes almost caricatured. In particular, the poet Sappho, the doctor Hippocrates, the strategist Pericles, general Alcibiades and, above all, the latter’s mentor, the philosopher Socrates, parade.
After having (finally!) separated from Noura, Noam falls in love with Daphne, an unbearable nincompoop and sister of Xanthippe, the horrible wife of Socrates. Definitely, we will return to the nuanced female characters…
Like the previous volume, numerous and endless lovemaking between Noam and the new chosen one of his heart slows down the story.
Likewise, the novelist, enthusiastic and passionate, loses himself in long descriptions of Olympic events and plays.
To these digressions, Éric-Emmanuel Schmitt fortunately contrasts interesting reflections on the female condition, the diktats of beauty, male-female relationships and sexual orientation by establishing parallels with the eras following Antiquity. The grandiose epic of Noam and Noura is also punctuated by brief chapters where we find them in a not-so-distant future in California, with Britta, neuroatypical daughter of Sven, Noura’s Swedish husband. The young environmental activist, recovering from an assassination attempt, makes a discovery which pushes her to question the immortals about their true identity. Unfortunately, this part of the story turns out to be the least thrilling of The light of happiness.
In fact, it is when the author displays his dazzling erudition in the footnotes, where Noam weaves links between eras, that the novel becomes more than captivating and takes on its full scope. Having brilliantly demystified great biblical stories in the first volumes, Éric-Emmanuel Schmitt undoubtedly reserves relevant reflections on the evolution of beliefs in The two kingdomsfifth of eight volumes, which will discuss Rome and the birth of Christianity.
The Crossing of Times – vol. 4: The light of happiness
Albin Michel
600 pages