Frédéric Beigbeder et ses doubles ed. by Alain-Philippe Durand

Abstract

DURAND, ALAIN-PHILIPPE, éd. Frédéric Beigbeder et ses doubles. CRIN 51. Amsterdam: Rodopi, 2008. ISBN 978-90-420-2472-4. Pp. 208. 42 a. As Durand observes in his introduction, “Beigbeder est le symbole d’une nouvelle génération de romanciers qui agacent l’intelligentsia” (7). Despite their undoubted commercial success, Beigbeder’s novels have to date been little examined by the university community. The aim of this study, the first significant collection of critical writings devoted to the ex-adman, magazine columnist, television presenter, DJ, and fixture of the Parisian nightclub scene is to make a case for greater academic appreciation of his work. This lively volume is composed of a wide variety of contributions: they all look beyond the author’s highly mediatized persona and examine his fiction on its own terms. Eight academic articles are presented alongside positive appraisals of Beigbeder’s work from two of his contemporaries , novelists Benoît Duteurtre and Philippe Vilain. These are accompanied by a recent theoretical essay by Beigbeder, a comprehensive interview between Durand and the novelist as well as some previously unpublished correspondence between the two. Beigbeder’s controversial status within contemporary literature is also reflected through a confrontational interview alongside literary purist Richard Millet, with the former in typically provocative form claiming, “Je revendique la futilité comme une valeur essentielle” (41). All of Beigbeder’s fictions from Mémoires d’un jeune homme dérangé (1990) onwards feature narrators who are thinly veiled avatars of the author, hence the mention of “doubles” in the collection’s title. Accordingly, much of the debate around Beigbeder’s literary value is symptomatic of the broader debate around the status of Serge Doubrovsky-inspired “autofiction” and its place within contemporary French fiction. Durand convincingly reveals how Beigbeder pushes autofiction to an extreme within his novels, revealing how the blurring of fantasy and reality is a key motif. Ralph Schoolcraft implores readers to look beyond the author’s celebrity status and proposes a socio-historical reading of his work to reveal how Beigbeder’s narrators are caught in the contradictions of post-1968 consumerism . Martine Delvaux is inspired by philosopher Peter Sloterdijk to examine Beigbeder’s seventh novel, L’égoïste romantique, in terms of the key role played by a cynical narrator. Beigbeder’s Windows on the World (2003) sits uneasily within his œuvre as a whole; it has the hallmarks of autofiction, but the escapades of the Parisian glitterati are replaced by a moving attempt to respond through literature to the 2001 World Trade Center attacks. Naomi Mandel offers an insight into how communication plays a key structural role in the novel, which can thus be read as an exploration of the Franco-American relationship. William Cloonan examines Beigbeder’s works in light of Baudrillard’s concept of simulacrum and argues how they can be read as an exemplary demonstration of the hyperreal. As Cloonan demonstrates , this is another important hallmark of Beigbeder’s satire of société du spectacle . Through a close reading, Yves de la Quérière examines how the restrictions of time and space operate in Vacances dans le coma (1994), while Sabine van Wesemael takes a broader approach and draws parallels among Beigbeder, Bret Easton Ellis, and Michel Houellebecq for their “romans transgressifs contemporains ” (156), highlighting a shared taste for subverting morals, society, and art. Economist Richard McIntyre’s closing response recounts a fictional conversation between himself and Octave, Beigbeder’s narrator-double in 99 francs. McIntyre confronts the character with his analysis of Beigbeder’s critique of the world of Reviews 355 advertising and advocates closer collaboration between the worlds of literature and economics. The volume was published before Beigbeder was awarded the Prix Renaudot for Un roman français (2009) as a more profound recognition of his work by the literary establishment. While we can hope this achievement will be addressed in future critical studies, this collection is an important step towards a deeper critical appreciation of Beigbeder’s writing. University of London Institute, Paris Russell Williams Études françaises 44.1. Engagement, désengagement: tonalités et stratégies. Montréal: PU de Montréal, 2008. ISBN 978-2-7606-2101...