[Critique] “All Immortal”, Paul Pavlowitch

A few months after the death of Romain Gary in December 1980, Paul Pavlowitch, the writer’s cousin, revealed in The man we believed (Fayard, 1981) that he had only played Émile Ajar (the author of Big hug and of The life ahead) and that Romain Gary was actually hiding under this pseudonym. Forty years later, deciding to assemble the memories of those he loved and who have long since passed away, the eighty-one-year-old man summons those immortals who have become Romain Gary and American actress Jean Seberg. , His wife. He knew them, frequented them, he protected them as much as he was protected by them. He alternates these destinies in All Immortals, a very personal book of free memory, in which he takes an unvarnished look at an era full of contrasts. A fascinating private tour behind the scenes of this high-flying literary deception, which left him a little bitter. “What remains of these childishness? The romantic truth is indestructible. »

All Immortals

★★★ 1/2

Paul Pavlowitch, Buchet-Chastel, Paris, 2023, 480 pages

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