Monday, March 2, 2009

FESTIVAL OF NEW FRENCH WRITING

French and American writers in conversation under the banner of a “Festival of New French Writing”: enough to attract the attention of an Upstate bookseller with a mission (promoting “books from the world”) and with an undisguised love for the French language. So I went. Three days of conversations at New York University tested my stamina, but were worth the effort.

There were good writers to discover out there, of diverse origin and style but all sharing the same language. From Abdourahman Waberi, the Djibouti born writer who masters the use of satire, to Marie N’Diaye, Olivier Rolin, Emmanuel Carrère, Jean-Philippe Toussaint, Frédéric Beigbeder, Marie Darrieussecq, David Foenikos, Chantal Thomas.

Iranian born Marjane Satrapi, author of the graphic novel and memoir Persepolis (subsequently made into a movie) delighted the audience with her witty exchanges with American graphic novelist Chris Ware. And BHL (yes, Bernard-Henri Lévy) was true to his self as “a man of many facets in French and international intellectual society”. His duet with Mark Danner got stuck on the question whether Bin Laden and consorts were “fascists” or not, as if that made a difference to the reality of the jihadist threat.

Other “duets” were also monothematic, a fact that annoyed, for example, E.L. Doctorow. Q&A sessions would have helped move forward some discussions and shift the focus to other subjects.

The American counterparts were equally interesting. Different personalities, often well matched to the French writers because of some similarities in their writing. My favorite was Philip Gourevitch (his book about the Rwandan genocide is a must), but Francine du Plessix Gray, Francine Prose, Siri Hustvedt, E.L. Doctorow and Chris Ware were also stimulating and engaging.

Bios of all the participants and of the moderators can be found on http://www.frenchwritingfestival.com/.