Book – à ma mère

Book – à ma mère : 50 écrivains parlent de leur mère (= to my mother : 50 authors talk about their mother) 

Author: Marcel Bisiaux & Catherine Jajolet 

Score: 5/10

Year: 1988, 2006 (second edition)

Publisher: Horay

ISBN 2-7058-0440-4

Pages 317

Language: French

One of the privileges of working in a library, some years ago, was that I could borrow books, and sometimes even gotten extra copies as a gift from my employers after erroneous orders or deliveries. This book was one of those extra copies we got by mistake and due to my own life story, was intrigued to read what authors had to say about their mothers. 

However, I also feared a certain demystification and thus withheld reading it all these years, as it laid on a shelf, collecting dust - while I was prioritizing many other books.

In mid-August, I finally decided to take it off its shelf and use it as one of my goodreads challenge, and so set on reading it in stages, while I was also reading another book (at first the god delusion, and once I was done, I had resumed Virginia Woolf's complete short stories), so it has been a slow process. 

For this particular book, the two authors traveled for a year and "randomly" met 50 authors, and questioned them about their mother, and how she has impacted (or not) their life, and their craft as writers, poets, novelists. 

The book's usually presented without a question and answer format, only a continuous flow of the interviewee's answers. Only in the case of Ernesto Sabato, interviewed by mail, the format of question and answer was decided, on his request. 

The first edition was released in 1988, and so I assume these meetings were held a year or two before that. These two authors who met the others mention that they didn't pre-select anyone, but rather went at random and wherever they could, would interview all these authors, the majority of them are French and men, but there are rare women, and a few who weren't French, but Canadian, American, Italian... 

Furthermore, Marcel Bisiaux & Catherine Jajolet interviewed everyone without any preconceived notion, nor judgment. 

I, however, had to be selective, as in some stories, I had to skip whole paragraphes which were too bloody or gory for my sensitive self, and I wish I hadn't read a few of them, such as Rezvani's, who had a quite awful event to tell, and I found it was rather a mean way of saying it.

Beware, some interviews include mentions of neglect, abuse, and possibly other kinds of triggering elements, and in my case with carnophobia and vegan lifestyle at the same time, I found some of them to be very unpleasant to read.  

Although some stories are interesting, I did feel like the format isn't well suited to make any comprehensive approach, as each author gets 5 or so pages, including a short bibliography and usually birth/death data (some preferred not to communicate them). 

I did like that from all these stories, one can see that authors aren't always a stereotypically in their mother's skirts, as some were indeed quite dependent and their careers were direct results of coaxing or education, whilst others became authors in spite of their mothers. 

I wish there was a better balance in chosen interviews between men and women authors, as this book has only 11, out of 50! 

Here are the names of the women : 

Chantal Chawaf, Maryse Condé, Marguerite Duras, Vivian Forester, Vénus Khoury-Ghata, Antonine Maillet, Josette Pratte, Marthe Robert, Dominique Rolin, Leïa Sebbar, Han Suyin.

As it wasn't the most pleasant read,  I don't plan to keep this book and read it again, and will deposit it in a nearby phone booth which has been converted into a self-service library. 

Here’s the complete breakdown, in book order, with nationalities. You'll notice they appear in alphabetical order of the last name : 

Jorge Amado (Brasil)
Fernando Arrabal (Spain)
Herve Bazin (France)
Tahar Ben Jelloun (Morocco)
Jacques Borel (France)
Georges Borgeaud (Switerland)
Daniel Boulanger (France)
Camille Bourniquel (France)
Antonio Callado (Brasil)
Tony Cartano (Spain)
François Cavanna (Italy)
Michel Chaillou (France)
Jerome Charyn (USA)
Chantal Chawaf (France)
Georges Emmanuel Clancier (France)
Hugo Claus (Belgium)
Bernard Clavel (France)
Maryse Conde (Guadeloupe)
René Depestre (Haiti)
André Dhôtel (France)
Marguerite Duras (Indochina ; now Vietnam)
Viviane Forrester (France)
Edouard Glissant (Martinique)
Jean-Edern Hallier (France)
Yasushi Inoué (Japan)
Venus Khoury-Ghata (Lebanon)
Danilo Kis (ex Yougoslavia)
Hartmut Lange (Germany)
Gilles Lapouge (France)
Antonine Maillet (Canada)
Pierre Mertens (Belgium)
Alberto Moravia (Italy)
Edgar Morin (France)
Norge (Belgium)
Louise Peltzer (French Polynesia)
Marcelin Pleynet (France)
Michel Ragon (France)
Rezvani (Iran)
Marthe Robert (France)
Dominique Rolin (Belgium)
Robert Sabatier (France)
Ernesto Sabato (Argentina)
Leila Sebbar (Algeria)
Philippe Sollers (France)
Han Suyin (China)
Jean Tardieu (France)
Tchicaya U Tam’si (Congo)
Frédérick Tristan (France)
Kenneth White (Scotland)

Kateb Yacine (Algérie)