“The Insolents” by Ann Scott

Two ideas for books to offer during these holiday periods, “Les Insolents” by Ann Scott, and her favorite: “Les Archives des sentiments” by Peter Stamm.

Writers, highlighted this fall with the literary prizes, talk about a book that they love and that they want to give for the end of year holidays. It is the turn of Ann Scott, winner of the 2023 Renaudot prize for The Insolentpublished by Calmann-Lévy, to tell us about his novel, and then to give us his literary favorite.

The narrator of this novel is called Alex. To describe it a little quickly, Alex is 46 years old. She is a recognized artist, musician and composer. She has a past as a junkie and seems to only know, as her friend Jack says, “stories that go to the wall”. One day, she made the choice to leave Paris and her loved ones, and arrived in Finistère in Brittany, to create and live there, alone.

Well, not completely alone, she has her inner world, and she is strong from this inner world. She thinks a lot about her friends, Margaux and Jacques, and all those who are with them “the insolent”those whom life shakes up, who are in solitude, but who despite everything, hang on.

“I think it’s a form of insolence yes, to refuse to suffer and to try to be, not happy, because I don’t know what that means, but to be okay. To try to fight to be well. I don’t know if it’s a form of insolence or arrogance, a way of not giving up, of trying to want the best for yourself.”

It is a novel which oscillates between the daily life of the narrator and her thoughts, or those of those around her. Ann Scott put a lot of herself into it, it’s very intimate, very sensitive!

The idea for a book to give, by Anne Scott

A superb book of photos published by Buchet-Chastel: “Nica’s Eye, from Pannonica by Koenigswarter, who was an English Baroness Rothschild, born in the early 1900s, who had a passion for jazz, and who was very supportive of jazz musicians in the late 1950s, and especially in the 1960s, in New York. She was the home of Thelonious Monk and his wife for a long time. When we look at Clint Eastwood’s Bird, the living room in which Charlie Parker died at the end is her home. And so she’s white, they’re black, she’s rich, they’re poor, she gave them everything. And even when you don’t like jazz, it’s superb.” Ann Scott continues:

“And I have a certain nostalgia for the 50s and 60s in New York and that whole period, especially musically. So it particularly touches me. I don’t know if it will touch the people I’m going to offer it to, but I’ll try !”

Nica’s eye. Photographs of Pannonica by Koenigswarterby Nadine de Koenigswarter and Laurent de Wilde, Buchet Chastel editions.

As a bonus and in connection with Nica’s eyeanother Ann Scott favorite:

Jazz musicians and their three wishes, of Pannonica by Koenigswarter, Buchet Chastel editions.

Happy reading and happy new year to everyone!