+and+Michel+Houellebecq++Photo+-+AFP+Photo.jpg)
Sparring partners ... Bernard-Henri Levy (left) and Michel Houellebecq come to grips of sorts. Photo: AFP Photo
I hesitate to begin a book review by referring to the publisher's blurb, still less to the puff quote on the book's front cover. But in the case of Public Enemies, a volume of correspondence between novelist Michel Houellebecq and philosopher Bernard-Henri Levy, the temptation proves irresistible.
First the puff quote: ''Brilliantly done'' (Ian Buruma, The New York Times). Now, we all know the publisher's trick of selecting one word from a mixed review to make it sound more positive than it is but this takes the biscuit. For turning to the source of this ostensible endorsement, we find it is not an endorsement at all but the sarcastic conclusion to a sarcastic review that affects to treat the book as a joke. Buruma, in other words, is being ironic. For ''Brilliantly done'', read ''Wow, this is silly!''
That's the front cover. Turning to the back, we discover a second instance of mis-selling, more serious than the first in that it relates to the nature (as opposed to the quality) of the book's contents. The publisher describes Public Enemies thus: ''In 2008, two of the most celebrated French intellectuals - Michel Houellebecq and Bernard-Henri Levy (BHL) - began a ferocious exchange of letters. Public Enemies is the result … Never dull, always incendiary, this is one literary fight you can't ignore. The sparks fly from every page.''
First the puff quote: ''Brilliantly done'' (Ian Buruma, The New York Times). Now, we all know the publisher's trick of selecting one word from a mixed review to make it sound more positive than it is but this takes the biscuit. For turning to the source of this ostensible endorsement, we find it is not an endorsement at all but the sarcastic conclusion to a sarcastic review that affects to treat the book as a joke. Buruma, in other words, is being ironic. For ''Brilliantly done'', read ''Wow, this is silly!''That's the front cover. Turning to the back, we discover a second instance of mis-selling, more serious than the first in that it relates to the nature (as opposed to the quality) of the book's contents. The publisher describes Public Enemies thus: ''In 2008, two of the most celebrated French intellectuals - Michel Houellebecq and Bernard-Henri Levy (BHL) - began a ferocious exchange of letters. Public Enemies is the result … Never dull, always incendiary, this is one literary fight you can't ignore. The sparks fly from every page.''
This gives the impression that ''public enemies'' refers to some enmity between the book's authors. However, such is not the case. The enmity is not between Houellebecq and Levy but between Houellebecq/Levy and the public.
''When all this has calmed down,'' Houellebecq writes, ''some future historian will be able to draw some great lesson from the fact that we both, and at much the same time, have comfortably fulfilled the role of public enemies.''
Tidak ada komentar:
Posting Komentar