Goncourt Scandal and Drama
SCANDAL & DRAMA!
In case you didn’t know, French literary culture is Serious Business. Très sérieux.
This article is about a month old, but it’s pretty lengthy. One of France’s top literary prizes — the Goncourt, whose recipients have included Marcel Proust and Simone de Beauvoir — has caused a ruckus because a novel written by the romantic partner of one of the judges made the list. This year, The Children of Cadillac by François Noudelmann was one of 16 novels to be considered for top prize. What’s the issue? Camille Laurens, one of the judges, is Noudelmann’s partner. In addition, she’s a book reviewer at Le Monde…and wrote a negative review of another Goncourt contender soon after the list was released. (Oh, btw, The Children of Cadillac is dedicated to someone with the initials of “C.L.” Hmmmm….)
The article goes on about the history of French literary prizes and how they’ve sought to be more transparent. But my main takeaway is that A) there’s a 5-column piece about French literary drama in the NYT, and B) “…the Goncourt-winning novel automatically becomes a default Christmas present.” Oh, and C) the hallowed restaurant where jurors met to discuss which books to include was important enough to be the lead photograph. Vive la France! 🇫🇷📚
{PS: I don’t think there’s an equivalent measure of literary gravitas in popular American culture…except for maybe Oprah’s endorsement? That’s the only “prize” I can think of that would get a large swath of people to buy the same book en masse. Maybe the Pulitzer depending on the book because I guess Americans are fickle. Thoughts?}
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