“Mr. Malaussène is requested from the Complaints office. »
This incipit may go back to 1985, but Daniel Pennac confides in seeing himself writing it as if it were yesterday. The dialogue line was styling To the happiness of the ogres, the very first stone of the Malaussene building. Devoured by thousands of readers, the fresco depicts the pangs of a teeming colorful family, constantly caught up in adventures and misadventures in the form of investigations, pastiche of the detective genre with an amusing line of felt. In the first opuses, we discovered in particular Benjamin Malaussène, exercising the strange profession of “scapegoat”, his tribe which never ceased to expand over the titles, or even Queen Zabo, an extravagant editor.
With Malaussene Terminus, published in Quebec on February 6, the author delivers a final part, painting an incredible story of a fake kidnapping turning into a real kidnapping, throwing into the fray the Malaussene cousins, Inspector Titus and his colleagues, as well as Pépère, an implacable mobster with the false air of a kind grandpa. A grand finale faithful to the Pennac style, where improbable aftershocks and unexpected twists follow one another… and come to an end forever. Why stop? Is this decision up to him or does it come from his publisher? Asking the writer these questions is a bit like asking one of his comical characters; when answering, by videoconference, he leans towards the computer microphone to confide, like a secret: “Dear sir, my editor never makes a decision. I do what I want, damn it! he whispers, laughing, loud enough for the publisher’s press officer in the next room to hear his words.
In a more serious tone, he explains that he wants to turn the page and explore other ways of writing, he who is already concocting his next book, which will probe the relationship between silence and laughter.
Precisely, far from giving in to sadness by completing the Malaussène saga, he confesses to having written the conclusion (“It was at this moment that my ideas got confused”) with a “discreet laugh”, seeming to leave one foot in the door.
tribulations of a tribe
Warning to readers: Malaussene Terminus complements the plot developed in The Malaussene case, previous opus whose preliminary reading is strongly recommended. And still it is necessary to be familiar with the range of characters who have enriched the series since its founding – a biographical index and a family tree help to sort it all out, however. Wasn’t Pennac afraid of confusing his readers, even those of the first hour?
“In literature, as in life, when you go somewhere, you must not resist. If you spend the evening in a living room where there are 150 people and you don’t know many people, after half an hour, that’s it, you know the people. It’s the same for literature”, emphasizes the author, brandishing the example of Russian literature, because he has just recently immersed himself in the reading ofAnna Karenina. “After 100 pages, I knew everyone. I let myself go by reading Tolstoy. »
He also admits to having very special ties with his characters, several of whom were baptized in reference to relatives: Titus is the real name of a friend, Queen Zabo evokes Isabelle Jan, a publisher who has now disappeared, Clara refers to one of his former students, just as we find his wife and daughter there… “Fortunately, the end of the Malaussenes does not lead to their own end! “, he slips.
A tingling that we find on the script side, where each twist chases another, between false policemen, real investigators, tortured writer and treacherous criminals, giving the young Malaussene a hard time.
However, if he drew up plans for his first novels, he let himself be guided more and more by the aspirations of his pen as the volumes appeared. “For the last two, I really preferred to let myself be carried away by the writing, as if I were my own reader,” he says.
PHOTO JOEL SAGET, AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE ARCHIVES
Daniel Pennac
Amusing darkness
Throughout this literary fresco there is always a darker side, increasing the comic effect tenfold by contrast (To the happiness of the ogres opens with an attack). This feature seems particularly salient in Malaussene Terminus, inoculating the reader with more dark nuances than usual. It’s because they’re not joking, these kidnappers who shoot at all costs and cut off ears! A reflection of our time, explains Pennac. “It is nevertheless a time when, in the last 10 years, we have seen notorious assassins being democratically elected to head many governments: Putin, Erdogan, etc. If you add to that the climate issue and the resurgence of global pandemics, the total of the addition is not very funny. So it may be at the bottom of this Malaussène, ”he explains, recalling that the relationships between the characters continue to feed the amusing side of his stories, like Pépère, a particularly cold-blooded godfather. “In the black genre, it is rather funny for me”, smiles its creator.
The latter also plays mischief with our questions; “Homer, perhaps? “, he answers without serious when asked which writer to entrust, hypothetically, the reins of his saga. In fact, his implied response is the same as Odysseus’ response to the Cyclops: “No one.” His universe being too attached to his soul. “I do not work for posterity after my death, but for the soil, that is to say all the books written during an era, the sum of which makes literature grow, other writers are born and multiplies the number of readers. Without a doubt, Pennac has a knack for concluding with panache.
In bookstores February 15
Malaussene Terminus
Daniel Pennac
Gallimard
430 pages