French Economy Minister Bruno Le Maire has published his second novel – his fifth since taking office in 2017. Someone asked: Why didn’t he tackle record debt? The minister disagreed.
1,312 pages of literature – that’s the number of pages Economy Minister Bruno Le Maire has written since he took office six years ago. And it’s not just Michel Houellebecq, France’s full-time star poet. This can be gleaned from a picture in the left-wing newspaper “Libération”. This new novel alone has 480 pages. Minister, where does time come from?
“I know the French might ask themselves that,” the politician said. “The answer is simple: It took ten years to write the book. Five years to research the legendary pianist Vladimir Horowitz. Another five years to write it—on vacation , on weekends, starting at five in the morning.”
The hard work of pianist Vladimir Horowitz
“Fugue américaine” is the name of hard work. Among them, “fugue” means fugue and escape in French. Both apply to the pianist Vladimir Horowitz, for whom Lemaire is fascinated. The Jewish-Ukrainian-Russian master left the USSR in 1925, played in Berlin and Hamburg, lived in Paris, and finally emigrated to the United States in 1939. So “Fugue”.
“Not only because of Horowitz’s exile, but also because of the fugue in the music that spans a melody, two or three lines. Horowitz was depressed, but with the help of his wife, Wanda, she, like many women, made it through the music industry. An important place. Novel, he returned to the stage and became a legend as a pianist,” Le Maire said.
This is in stark contrast to the life of the real book hero, Franz Wertheimer, who wanted to be a pianist, met Horowitz for a concert in Cuba, and realized he would never have his talent. He also became depressed but did not recover. One of my key questions is: why does one get up after falling, but the other doesn’t? I have a tenderness for the latter, you have to help them. ”
“Happiest Minister of Economy and Finance”
On public television France 5’s program “C à vous” (roughly: “It’s your turn”), the minister was asked if he didn’t want to retire from time to time, as Horowitz once did. Le Maire recalled 2016, when his conservative bloc was looking for a presidential candidate: “No, just once. The day after the primaries – I said to myself: ‘For a disappointing less than 3% votes, so much commitment and effort. Was it worth it? I bounced back and I am now the happiest of all business and treasury ministers.”
happy? The book was published almost at the same time as rating agency Fitch downgraded France. The lack of reforms, the pension chaos, the record national debt – these are all novels that Le Maire scorns and the Left Opposition criticizes. Le Maire thinks this is too pessimistic. It could also boast 1.7 million new jobs, reindustrialization and a favorable investment climate. Still bad timing. However, Le Maire remains undeterred.
Everyone has their own escape route and needs something other than a career: gardening, cooking, sports. I write, and I demand this freedom. Because it gives you an inner balance. This makes being a minister easier. Finding answers to sometimes political questions in fiction will set you free and balanced. A balanced minister with an open mind would also be good for the country. ”
Short chapters, precise descriptions
A father of four needs work-life balance. Roughly as opposed to pension reform as most people are. After all, Le Maire called for political engagement. Horowitz wanted to escape politics, but she caught up with him and sentenced his father to the Gulag. And in France, the far right is growing.
“Anyone who wants to get involved in politics should get into politics. It’s too easy to say that politics is dirty, that everyone is corrupt and bends over backwards. That’s not the reality,” Le Maire said. “Political engagement is vital to our country. When those who have faith, believe in reason and French universalism do not fight politically, they give way to those who have a different blueprint for France – less Noble is not beautiful.” It sounds almost like a quote from Goethe. In the book he has a protagonist who says:
You are wrong that you are not interested in politics. Nobody can escape politics. (…) Don’t leave them to the mediocre. It always ends badly.
As one reader wrote, the book begins “catchyly”. The protagonist Franz’s son receives a manuscript in the mail and publishes it. This is the book that readers are holding in their hands today. However, according to Franz, he removed the most offensive chapters. Then curiosity asks: which ones? Four parts, four eras. The chapters are short and the descriptions are precise, sometimes too epic. Linguistically it is a fine pen, with rhythm, humor and a touch of eroticism. The hashtag “I’m more nervous than ever” has been circulating online — a direct quote that enraptured the first-person narrator.
porn books from Secretary of State
Support comes from government team: Labor secretary has to scoff at the job, but thinks it’s good that there is emotion behind the minister’s lawsuit. Charming, said a colleague of a medium-sized company—the minister is also a person with joys and sorrows. Secretary of State Schiappa, who publishes pornographic books, recently proved this with revealing photos on Playboy.
Le Maire does not want to self-censor. “Yes, there’s a lot of sexiness in this book. It starts in Cuba, in Havana. Because I wanted the sexiness of Horowitz’s play to be consistent with the characters, the landscape, the city, the Caribbean, the climate. Sensibility is important to the text. “
Style Exercises for Goncourt Winners
The literary world is more reserved. Nicolas Mathieu, winner of France’s most important literary prize, the Goncourt, admitted that every erotic quote torn from the text appeared absurd. He then simply rewrites pornographic scenes on his Instagram account as “little style exercises.”
Le Maire, who played the piano, was there, a friend of Houellebecq’s and not illiterate. He graduated from three elite schools with a BA in German Studies, a master’s thesis from Marcel Proust, and a license to teach modern languages in secondary schools, the best of his year.
Passages in German, English and Spanish also appear in the original text of the novel. “He likes to use French against other languages,” said the multilingual minister of Liberation, imbuing it with a different kind of music. But what does Bruno Le Maire want from his readers? “You should ignore the author. That’s okay! I’d be happy if a lot of people closed the book and said: We had a great time.”