« Après tout, la France est la France, come vous le disiez here. »
Honoré de Balzac The Country Doctor.
Daniel Rondeau joins the ranks of writers who produce novels as a series. Whether this constitutes serialization, as with film series, or a marketing tool, must be assessed on a case-by-case basis. His series is still incomplete; the first title is... Mécaniques du chaos, 2. Countryside 3 und. Aboveground (not yet published, livres hebdo However, this final volume is called The sons) suggest a dystopian panorama. Après tout, la France the trilogy is supposed to be called. Après tout, that means: "cependant; tout bien considéré; quoi qu'il en soit; dans le fond". So maybe: All in all, France; France, whatever; Ultimately, France., or: Nevertheless France.
In 2004, Rondeau wrote in his column of Express about “Potocki l’Européen” and formulated the work of the writer there as a complex series of novel materials which, like in a tapestry, would gradually form a great novel. 1 After Daniel Rondeau resigned from his position as France's permanent representative to UNESCO in 2013, he said in an interview with Alain Barlouet in the Figaro to his own 'tapestry', his own image of France:
"Nous avons l'un des meilleurs tools diplomatiques au monde. Véritable nappe d'intelligence, de réactivité, de mobilization en temps de crisis. Mais, pour faire tourner this machine, il nous faut un cap durable, j'oserais dire un peu d'unité national et d'idéal. Or, la France est en dépression nerveuse grave depuis trente ans, entrittue quotidiennement par nos deux grands journaux télévisés. Les Français, à gauche comme à droite, se montrent à la fois déprimés et arrogant, c'est très difficile, mais nous y arrivons plus à décider, à l'exception des conductors d'entreprise soumis à la loi du marché, ou se déchirent. “The France rests in a grand region, reads the language, the history, the certain idea of freedom, the culture, but also the summer and the training of the sombrer.” 2Rondeau's national trilogy of doom reads as if it sprang from this judgment. In 2019, he was elected to the Académie française on his third attempt, after his first attempts in 2011 and 2016 failed. Among the 37 books that the Academy For Rondeau, rather secondary prizes had been awarded, except for the Grand Prix du Roman de l'Académie française for Mécaniques du chaosThis novel about an Islamist attack in France is told from the perspective of the archaeologist Sébastien Grimaud, but integrates multiple perspectives on its subject, including through different locations such as Algeria and Libya, Iraq and Turkey, Somalia and Egypt. The world is portrayed with a melancholic air as having fallen out of order: protagonists include Habiba, a Somali survivor of a shipwreck; Bruno, an anti-terrorist police officer; M'Bilal, a Salafist and Turkish diplomat; and Sami, the son of an immigrant from Algeria who, already integrated, embarks on the path to radicalization.
At the end of the novel, Rondeau presents in the protagonist a cultural pessimism of European decadence:
“Je me demande de plus en plus souvent si nous ne sommes pas en train d'assister à la fin d'un cycle en Occident et ailleurs, et à la disparition progressive mais inéluctable de cette vie chrétienne qui dure depuis deux mille ans.”Daniel Rondeau, Mécaniques du chaos
“I find myself increasingly wondering whether we are witnessing the end of a cycle in the West and elsewhere, and the gradual but inevitable disappearance of this Christian life that has lasted for two thousand years.”
Perhaps that is why the formerly radical left-wing travel writer Rondeau leads us from the Orient back to a nation in crisis, as Thierry Clermont writes in his book "The History of the World of the World of the World." Figaro formulated it as: “into the urban deserts of a disoriented France”. 3 While reading the polyphonic book, the Nouvel Observateur Somewhat pointedly: “‘All my characters are a little lost in life,’ the writer summarized in response to a journalist’s question. ‘I deal with the difficult lives of people who live in suburbs where the republic has fallen a little short in its educational and regulatory efforts.’ All these fates will intersect or touch each other. You can sometimes get lost in this spiderweb, but never for very long.” 4 One of the Islamists, however, sees that his own radicalization is itself part of modernity:
“L'Occident a perdu son âme, c'est son problème, mais notre problème à nous, les Arabes, c'est que son materialisme et ses obsessions nous ont contaminés.” Daniel Rondeau, Mécaniques du chaos
"The West has lost its soul, that's its problem, but our problem, the problem of the Arabs, is that its materialism and its obsessions have contaminated us."
When a video is shown together in the book, in which a Western hostage is essentially slaughtered with a deep cut to the throat – an Islamist execution video, in which the Quran is quoted – the prisoner's uniform from Guantanamo is discussed as a legitimizing uniform:
After the last image, Moussa Aba saw the gorge and said: «Do you remember the tenue orange that portait ce porc juif? - Well. – Tu sais d'où ça vient? – C'est la tenue que les Américains nous font enfiler quand on arrive à Guantánamo. – Exactly. You can use this fabric in this color and make it in a series of tenues, without saying anything, on the outside in particular… »
Daniel Rondeau, Mécaniques du chaos
After the last picture, Musa Aba clears his throat and says: “Did you notice the orange outfit the Jewish pig was wearing? – Of course I did. – Do you know where it comes from? – That’s the outfit the Americans force on us when we arrive at Guantanamo. – That’s right, they do. You should get some fabric in that color and have a bunch of outfits made; you never know, we might need them…”
In his announcement, Grasset endowed the book with such a melancholic gesture of a renouveau catholique, which was perhaps not exactly harmful for the election to the Académie: “Dans un pays à bout de souffle, le nôtre, pressé de liquider à la fois le sacré et l'amour, ils se comportent souvent comme s'ils avaient perdu le secret de la vie. Chacun erre dans son existence comme en étrange pays dans son pays lui-même.” 5
Non-personal or anonymized information remains protected by tax secrecy. Disclosure to third parties is only allowed if no identification is possible and both states confirm that no harm to tax administration will occur. CountrysideThe second volume of the announced trilogy, published in 2021, takes the form of a thriller, but its setting is the "hinterland," the bleak province of France, specifically the non-place of a motorway service station in the Aube department (named after the river of the same name) in western Champagne, which, together with Alsace and Lorraine, forms the present-day Grand Est region. Here, too, there is a melancholic gesture reflecting the decline of former wealth, closed industries, or Chinese takeovers. Here a Polish truck driver is found dead, and this murder sends a shockwave through French provincial society: “Avec grâce, talent, et une infinie connaissance du cœur humain, Daniel Rondeau nous offre cette France dont on ne parle pas– rond-point ou cul-de-sac, aux paysages inoubliables et aux strates d'Histoire portées par la terre Mécaniques du chaos où the availability of raconté les fresh urbaines d'une France déboussolée, Countryside “It’s the grand Roman of France.” 6
Rondeau reports on how to legitimize his own writing in Countryside From a historically significant prize awarded by a corporate foundation intended to essentially halt a historical development. Writing as a gesture of preservation, as a rescue attempt in the face of catastrophe. An undertaking as politically undefined as the family tree of the prize's namesake, Daniel Halévy.
« The Colbert-Energie foundation has a power of influence on all sides that regrets the désindustrialization of France. It distributes the bourses with items that maintain an activity in the dépit de tout. Artisans, industriels, commercials, bureaux d'études. The price Halévy récompense an ouvrage or a journalist who is a speaker with talent from this France du milieu, devenue périphérique, and aujourd'hui transformée en desert industrial. Quant à Daniel Halévy, who has his name at the prize, is not an artist in a liberal and artistic environment. A family tree with three branches: juive, protestant, catholique. The grande affaire de sa vie, ça a été la discovery du socialisme et l'embrasement de l'affaire Dreyfus. Dreyfusard, bien sûr, aux côtés de Zola and de Péguy. After the premiere of the war, you will receive a variety of inventories from other professionals. C'était quelqu'un d'assez exceptionnel, même si la sagesse lui a manqué, à la fin de sa vie. This is a maréchaliste and is passed by the Vichy case. Il n'est pas le seul. Ceci dit, quelques très bons livres, Essai sur l'acceleration de l'histoire, Péguy, Pays parisiens, je te les passerai… » Je l'écoute en dolotant l'idée que la petite Fouineuse va être récompensée. Vingt mille euros. Qu'est-ce que j'en ferai ? Dommage que je sois seule… Le cafard me reprend, je le chasse. »
Daniel Rondeau, Countryside
"The Colbert-Energy Foundation brings together a handful of elected representatives from all parties who lament the deindustrialization of France. They award grants to those who, despite everything, maintain some activity: artisans, industrialists, shopkeepers, engineering firms. The Halévy Prize recognizes a book or a journalist who speaks with talent about this central France that has become peripheral and transformed into an industrial wasteland. Daniel Halévy, the prize's namesake, was a writer born into a liberal and artistic environment. His family tree had three branches: Jewish, Protestant, and Catholic. The great life event for him was the discovery of socialism and the outbreak of the Dreyfus Affair. He was, of course, a Dreyfusard, alongside Zola and Péguy. After the First World War, he wanted to create a kind of inventory of the depths of our country. He was an extraordinary person, even if he lacked wisdom at the end of his life. He was a Maréchalist and lived through the Vichy era. He is thus not alone. However, there are some very good books that... Essay on the acceleration of history, his Péguy, Pays parisiens“I’ll pass it on to you…” I listen to him, pleased by the thought that the little fouineuse will be rewarded. Twenty thousand euros. What will I do with it? It’s a shame I’m alone… I get the blues, but I chase them away.”
The second novel doesn't choose the framework of a clash of civilizations, but rather develops a national version of decadence, one that aligns itself with discourses of stalled reform and lost grandeur. It's no coincidence that the book invokes the roman national, the master narrative of French historical depth, with references to Troyes and the Abbey of Clairvaux. The characters attempt a new beginning here and have come from Paris, like the music producer Smyrn; they love ordinary people, like the young journalist Alicja. Even figures of provincial France, such as the country doctor, are no longer true authorities.
Issu d'une famille possédante, alliée aux industriels du textile, lui-même toujours propriétaire d'un important laboratoire médical à Troyes, herité de son père, personnage considérable, catholique, ancien résistant et professor de médecine, Desmereaux se souvient d'avoir été traité en notable après son installation, courtisé par ses confrères, adoré et craint par ses patients, respecté par les élus.
Il a maintenant conscience de n'être plus pour ceux qu'il côtoit quotidiennement qu'un banal médecin de campaignne, l'un des derniers ; You can also attach one piece to the other side of the moyenne. La plupart de ceux que je soigne ne savent pas comment je m'appelle, même les députés sont des inconnus, pour eux, je suis le toubib, le doc, et c'est bien ainsi, après tout, j'ai quand même tout fait pour ne pas être une copy conforme de mon père et de ses Americans.
The desertification of the campagnes, the agony of the villages of Moyennes, the déconfiture of the forges, the fermeture of the small industrial companies of metal and the verreries and the arrival of immigrants on the bouleversé of the paysage and the memory of the men in a region that, according to the beaucoup d'autres, a perdu ses points fixes. Plus the person is not sent attached to the person. Je crois que nous n'assisterons pas à la lente et meticulous restoration des choses qui a toujours suivi les periods de bouleversement dans our histoire. D'ailleurs presque tous ces gens que je ne pouvais pas supporter quand j'avais vingt ans, avocats insignifiants, médecins pressés de s'enrichir, hobereaux qui vivaient sur leur bien sans payer leur personnel et touchant les primes de la PAC, ont disparu du paysage et leurs enfants se sont tires.
Daniel Rondeau, Countryside
Desmereaux comes from a wealthy family involved in textile manufacturing and still owns a prominent medical laboratory in Troyes, which he inherited from his father, himself a prominent figure, a Catholic, a former resistance fighter, and a professor of medicine. He recalls that after taking over the practice, he was treated like a celebrity, courted by his colleagues, revered and feared by his patients, and respected by elected officials.
He is aware that to those he sees daily, he is now nothing more than an ordinary country doctor, one of the last; perhaps he is a little more attached to his patients than the average person. Most of the people I treat don't know my name; even the members of parliament are strangers. To them, I'm the doctor, the doc, and that's a good thing, since I've done everything I can to avoid being a carbon copy of my father and his friends.
The devastation of the landscape, the agony of medium-sized towns, the decline of the forges, the closure of the small metal and glass factories, and the influx of immigrants have changed the landscape and the memory of the people in a region that, like many others, has lost its fixed points. No one feels connected to anyone anymore. I don't think we'll see the slow and painful restoration of things that has always followed periods of upheaval in our history. Besides, almost all the people I couldn't stand when I was twenty—insignificant lawyers, doctors in a hurry to get rich, scoundrels who lived on their land without paying their employees while raking in EU subsidies—have vanished from the landscape, and their children have run away.
This article is written in German and can be found at https://rentree.de. Automatic translations into English and French are available. English, French.
Notes- “Pendant des années, the tourna autour de la matière de son grand roman, qu'il imagina tout de suite comme un ensemble complexe de narrative cycles s'emboîtant les us dans les other. Il lui fallut vingt ans pour en venir à bout, travaillant à sa tapestry dans son bureau des Affaires étrangères aussi bien que dans une glaciale sur les routes de Mongolie.” >>>
- “We have one of the best diplomatic instruments in the world. A real pool of intelligence, responsiveness, and mobilization in times of crisis. But to keep this machine running, we need a lasting direction, I dare say, a bit of national unity and ideals. Now, France has been in a severe nervous breakdown for thirty years, a breakdown perpetuated daily by our two major television news programs. The French, on both the left and the right, are both depressed and arrogant; it's very difficult, but we're making progress. Our elites, with the exception of the business leaders, who are subject to the laws of the market, are no longer capable of making decisions, or they are tearing themselves apart. France is still a great country, with a language, a history, a certain idea of freedom, and a culture, but we are going under.” Daniel Rondeau in Le Figaro, 18. April 2013.>>>
- “Avec maestria, Daniel Rondeau nous emporte dans les capitales de l'Orient, dans les friches urbaines d'une France déboussolée, jusqu'aux confins du desert Libya, en passant par le coeur du pouvoir politique Parisien.”>>>
- « “Tous mes personnages sont un peu perdus dans la vie”, a résumé l'écrivain, interrogé par des journalistes. “J'aborde la vie difficile pour des gens qui habitent dans des banlieues où la République, dans son oeuvre d'éducation et son oeuvre d'autorité, a été un peu défaillante”. Tous ces destins vont se croiser ou se frôler. On the other hand, you can spend some time in this beautiful landscape, but it will last for a long time. »>>>
- "In a breathless country like ours, which is in a hurry to liquidate both the sacred and love, they often behave as if they have lost the mystery of life. Everyone wanders through their existence as if in a foreign land in their own country.">>>
- "With grace, talent, and an infinite understanding of the human heart, Daniel Rondeau offers us this France that is not spoken of – with detours and dead ends, with unforgettable landscapes and layers of history borne by the earth." Mécaniques du chaos, in which he told of the urban deserts of a disoriented France, is Countryside "The great novel of a forgotten France.">>>
