In his latest book, “A badminton game”, Olivier Adam tells the story of a writer in turmoil because in the throes of failure. As for his book, it is far from having convinced the critics of “Masque & la Plume” who consider it “depressive”, “boring”, “dirty” and even “pathetic” …
The book presented by Jérôme Garcin
The hero of this novel, a recurring character in Olivier Adam, is Paul Lerner. He is 45 years old, his last books have not sold much, he has lost his illusions in Paris, and he returns to where he left, in Brittany, near Saint-Malo, where he accepts a position as a local in a weekly. But worries begin to catch up with him, in his married, family and professional life.
Patricia Martin saw “talent even if it is a bit of a nuisance …”
PM : “It’s a very French novel, very depressive with this somewhat dull routine, this fatigue of being yourself, with this inability to find one’s place, and this absence to oneself in a life where one feels a little humiliated and deceived about the commodity.
We are really in the rumination for a very large part of the book with clumsiness, beginner heaviness sometimes – it is a bit of a pain, remarks expected in a kind of melting-pot, it’s society as it is with things that happen : the suburbs, the attacks, the refugees, racism, the life of bobo, ecology, the world of publishing and cinema.
We say to ourselves that it’s a little easy sometimes with stereotypes
Nevertheless, I find that he still has the talent to describe everyday life, the rising anguish, sleepless nights, incomprehension between people. The end, I found it formidable, an incredible suspense where there, all of a sudden, he wakes up with nerves “.
Michel Crépu: “a sincerity […] yes, but we still have to be taken … “
MC: “I was sensitive to the ambition of this book which pushed Adam to launch out in such a business. It’s a big book, a kind of specifications where absolutely nothing is missing, a learning novel that looks back on itself where what it tells us is a desire for success, literary ambition and disillusion, a defeat, a withdrawal, and that’s not nothing.
But … the only real problem is that it didn’t hold me back, there is a sincerity in him that I approve of but unfortunately there is a dust of boredom there, and we still have to be caught“.
For Olivia de Lamberterie “it’s a very boring book” …
OdL: “A very flat book, very unpleasant to read because I think that one of the great enemies of literature is bitterness and bitterness, but it is really the story of a kind of double of Olivier Adam because he enjoys give in the biography of this hero elements of his own biography, in particular by adapting his books to the cinema. He is a type of mad bitterness who is no longer successful … it’s hard to separate things out. I find that bitterness contaminates the book. He’s a guy who has a terrible vision of literature (just the number of readers, the number of public appearances, sales) but we want to ask ourselves: what kind of literature does he write?
It’s very, very long, and there is a language problem
Himself, the hero says he likes to talk like a chartier, he’s a guy who is angry who lost everything, his wife, his job, everything, it’s written like a Novotel flyer who tells you “there are hot drinks at your disposal”. There are also some pages where there are real problems with his wife and then says to her: “Here, if you had a hot drink?” When you argue with your wife and learn that she is having an affair, no, you don’t tell her that …
It is a book totally devoid of charm whereas the title has some … Unfortunately, if we read the book, we discover that it is not a title by him but a small extract from a song by Alain Chamfort. The only thing there is to save is the way he talks about his little boy who is very tender and very pretty. But no it’s a really, really boring book“…
Arnaud Viviant thinks Olivier Adam “should take a break” …
“I found this pathetic almost dirty in fact, a deep dirt in this book. There strangely, he speaks of writing as a profession, he is interested in knowing if he will be able to return to Japan with his children according to his sales.
This is the most depressing take on literature I have ever read
He’s a failed writer, second division. At one point, Olivier Adam was a long time, and he is likely to remain so again, the suffering pain of Frédéric Beigbeder and he says that this one calls him “Ouin Ouin”, and there frankly I would like to say that the ‘we are dealing with “great yeah yeah”, it’s “how am I going to pay the rent?” and luckily it ends well for him, he will go back to the cinema and stay there. Let him get rid of literature. I think he should take a break “…
Go further
Listen to all the reviews exchanged on the book:
“A game of badminton”, by Olivier Adam: the critics of Le Masque et la Plume
???? READ – “A game of badminton “ by Olivier Adam can be found at Flammarion.
► OPEN BOOK | All other works scrutinized by critics of the Mask and Feather can be found here.
Every Sunday at 8 p.m., find the reviews of the Mask and Feather, gathered around Jérôme Garcin, to talk about cinema, literature or theater.
