Two of France s most vilified authors, literary bad boy Michel Houellebecq and flamboyant philosopher Bernard-Henri Levy, have come together to pen a joint riposte to their critics, publishers said Monday.
The pair, who have not worked together before and have little in common as writers and thinkers, are among France s best-selling authors despite often attracting scorn and ridicule from readers and media commentators alike.
Publishers Flammarion and Grasset hope the new work, an exchange of letters between the authors entitled Public Enemies, will be the sensation of Paris autumn literary season and add to the odd couple s lucrative notoriety.
We are, you might say, different in every respect bar one, which is fundamental: we are each fairly despicable individuals, said Houellebecq in a brief extract carried on the book s fly-leaf and released by Flammarion.
Houellebecq is a writer of misanthropic novels which courted controversy in their treatment of sexual perversity and relations within his own family – his own mother has publicly branded him a liar, an impostor and a parasite.
Levy is France s best-known philosopher, perhaps as much thanks to his frequent television appearances, dandyish fashion sense and glamorous ex-model wife as for his various published works and political engagements.
I could make every possible or imaginable explanation, he wrote.
All I would do is reinforce my image as a rich arsehole that understands nothing about social issues, and is only interested in the wretched of the Earth in so far as it wins me publicity, he complained.
Reports suggest that in their correspondence the pair set about each other as well as their critics, while developing their views on their reputations, their politics, their families and their love lives.
Publishers have prepared a massive initial print run of 150,000 copies and will no doubt have been delighted by the latest negative publicity to hit the two authors.
Houellebecq s film version of his 2005 novel The Possibility of an Island, which came out in September, was panned by critics and flopped at the box office.
Meanwhile, Levy was accused of exaggerating and inventing details in his published account of a brief visit in August to Georgia during fighting between Russian and Georgian forces.
Excitement was further stoked by the two publishers pre-announcement campaign of rumors about an impending literary blockbuster, during which the authors names were kept secret in order to stir speculation.
Public Enemies will appear in France on Oct. 8. -AFP
