The death of the father very often leads to a questioning of the order of things, within a sibling. This new title by Olivier Adam focuses on the reunion of Claire, Antoine and Paul in the house of their childhood, on the occasion of the paternal funeral.
Posted at 8:00 p.m.
The novel unfolds over three days, from the day before their father’s funeral until the next day. It is the first time in a long time that the brothers and the sister have been reunited there, to the great joy of their mother who is delighted to see her children finally together, despite the circumstances.
However, it’s time for accounts between Claire, Antoine and Paul, the middle child, unpredictable and eagerly awaited. Because Paul, who has been away from his family since his early twenties, is accused by his brother and sister of having distorted family history to write his films and plays. Claire even holds him responsible for “fissuring” the family for cutting ties with her father.
“A family is a whole. You amputate a limb, she no longer exists,” she tells him vehemently, while Paul likes to recall the words of Philip Roth – “a writer in a family, c is the death of this family.
The two brothers exchange blows in a verbal jousting from which transpire resentment and jealousy – and despite everything, a certain nostalgia for their childhood under the same roof.
It is a very fair portrait of the family dynamics that the French writer depicts, and all the strength of the novel lies precisely in the finesse of these fiery dialogues between brothers and sisters. Alcohol, fatigue and emotion helping, tongues finally loosen, after years of silence and unsaid. We thus discover the source of the discrepancies in the family memory of each, as well as the roles that they have forced themselves to assume over the years and that they continue to play without their knowledge.
Olivier Adam also explores with great delicacy the fluctuations in our relationship to time that the mourning of the father entails, and which precipitates existential changes and decision-making. What he manages to show above all is that in the end, even blood ties are not strong enough, sometimes, to prevent beings from drifting away from their home base and go their own way.
Under the roses
Olivier Adam
flammarion
248 pages