4 Stars
This quirky book, part comedy and part mystery with a dash of romance, is for bibliophiles.
Crozon, in the Brittany region of France, has a library which houses manuscripts rejected by publishers. Delphine Despero, a young, ambitious editor, finds a gem amongst these rejects and works to have it published. The book, entitled The Last Hours of a Love Affair, was purportedly written by a now-deceased pizzeria owner, Henri Pick. Interest in this unlikely writer rises to a fevered pitch, though there are some, like Jean-Michel Rouche - a once-influential literary journalist, who cannot believe a man who never read could have written the book.
The book examines all aspects of the publishing industry; we meet writers, editors, publishers, book representatives, reviewers, librarians, and readers. There is gentle mockery of virtually all these people; for example, “Writing is the only job in the world where you can stay under the duvet all day long and still claim to be working.” We meet an editor for whom “the choice of keeping or deleting a comma could make her heart beat faster.” Publishers are skewered for using whatever means they can to promote sales: “This is often how the fate of a book is decided; some are given a head start. The publisher’s enthusiasm is the deciding factor; every parent has a favourite child.” Even controversy is welcomed because the attention it brings can boost a book’s sales. A librarian examines “each reader’s physical appearance in order to work out which author they needed.” Even readers are gently spoofed: “Readers always find themselves in a book, in one way or another. Reading is a completely egotistical pleasure.”
The author’s opinion is that we are “edging towards a complete domination of form over substance.” Pick’s novel, for example, becomes a best-seller, not because of the quality of the book itself, but because of the mystery surrounding its writer: “people were talking much more about the mystery of Henri Pick than about his book.” The life of Pick’s widow is turned upside-down once the book is published. At the end of the book, there is a reference to “our society’s obsession with form over substance.”
The book explores how recognition and fame affect people. Joséphine, Prick’s adult daughter, for instance, is depressed about the state of her life until journalists turn their attention to her in an attempt to learn about Henri: “Like a briefly famous reality-TV star, she was seduced by the idea of being special” and “discovered a taste for the drug that is fame.” She parlays her moment of fame to improve sales in her lingerie shop: “People queued up to buy a bra from the daughter of a pizzeria owner who’d written a novel in absolute secrecy.” Unfortunately, she becomes so accustomed to the limelight that she lets it consume her and fails to realize that someone might take advantage of her for personal gain.
How people deal with a lack of recognition is also explored. Delphine’s boyfriend is a writer whose first novel is not a commercial success, and he has to learn how to deal with failure. Likewise, Jean-Michel Rouche was once a powerful voice in the literary world but, after being fired, realizes that he might soon be forgotten, so he sets out to re-establish his reputation by proving that the publication of Pick’s novel is a literary hoax.
Romance is not a favourite genre for me, but the romantic touches in the book are delicate. The stories of several of the characters illustrate the theme of Pick’s novel: the last hours of a love affair. The romance behind Pick’s novel is certainly touching.
The many allusions add to the novel.
Because many of the literary references are to French literature with
which I am not very familiar, I found myself doing some research as I
read. I’ve not read The Possibility of an Island by Michel Houellebecq and had never even
heard of HHhH by Laurent Benet. I wish I had read The Lover by Marguerite Dumas so I could understand why it is the
novel one of the characters needs in her life.
I even went on YouTube to find a recording of the French singer Barbara
singing “Göttingen”,
the song which was so impactful on Joséphine (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2beYoAxxC8A). And I learned that there is an actual library
of unpublished manuscripts: http://www.thebrautiganlibrary.org/about.html.
There are some wonderful turns of phrase: “The burning question was on her lips, as impossible to hold back as a man fleeing a house on fire.” One man is described as being “capable of withdrawing into himself like a Russian doll.” Authors drop off their rejected manuscripts “to rid themselves of the fruits of their failure.” An unhappy woman regains “the use of her zygomatic muscles. Now she could be seen parading outside her shop, looking like a lottery winner.”
The humourous touches are pitch-perfect. The television interview with Pick’s widow is a wonderful scene. Pick is described as “the Fitzgerald of pizza”! An overweight woman has an affair and worries that her size is unattractive. Her lover tells her, “”I like women with curves. It’s reassuring.” She replies, “’Did you need that much reassurance?’” And there’s the man who wonders about a woman’s interest in him: “It had been a long time since a woman had driven three hundred kilometres to see him without warning. In fact, it had never happened before.”
I’ve read a couple of other feel-good books with a French connection for book lovers: The Little Paris Bookshop by Nina George (https://schatjesshelves.blogspot.com/2015/07/review-of-little-paris-bookshop-by-nina.html) and The Girl Who Reads on the Métro by Christine Féret-Fleury (https://schatjesshelves.blogspot.com/2020/06/review-of-girl-who-reads-on-metro-by.html), but The Mystery of Henri Pick is the best. It is deceptively light-hearted; the mystery is actually secondary. The book comments on subjects like society’s superficiality, the impact of fame, and human nature in general. I think that most readers picking up this novel will feel they have “the right book in their hands, a book that [speaks] to them.”
Note: I received a digital galley from the publisher via NetGalley.
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