Le Point : We just announce your victory Goncourt high school students, for your book Based on a true story . What is your first impression
Delphine de Vigan: I am obviously very happy but also very surprised. I do not think the book could please both this generation! Because this is a book about reading; a book that is for people who read a lot, a book that questions their relationship to fiction. So I asked myself the question: had the students read enough in their lives to be able to address this issue? The answer is yes ! I was wrong, and that’s good. This is perhaps a very good sign, one that the students read much more than we imagine.
If the total surprise for you, it must shake your calendar …
Yes, we had only asked me to make myself available this morning! I was at the National Centre for Cinematography (CNC) which I chair a writing aid commission when I received a phone call. I had to postpone a trip to Bordeaux to meet this evening the students at the Department of Education in Paris. I’m quite curious to know the reasons for their choice!
Why were you thinking as sincerely do not seduce?
I have grown children, each in their way, are permeable to questions posed by the world. But they will address these issues in different ways. Primarily by social networks through exchanges them also, and in some cases by reading. But in this generation, reading is not the first instinct.
When you met with the students, for that price, they said that your book?
I had the feeling they were embarrassed by the ambiguity of the novel and its different reading levels. But apparently I was wrong. I thought that at this age there is a greater need to have answers. Now my book asks questions without necessarily respond. However, the first reading level, that of the grip, handling, trap that closes on the narrator, that I understood that they liked. But it’s not enough to love the book.
How did they took the game to the ambiguity between fiction and reality that makes your novel if devouring?
They are not at all fooled by the “true story”. They are even less fooled many people. In the discussions I have had with them, I realized that their reading, from this point of view, is very sharp. Especially since the book refers to films they saw.
The Goncourt high school students did figure prices apart. What does it mean to you
Obviously I was very happy to receive the Renaudot – you can imagine! – But a prize of readers is particular. Because it is for them that we write with the idea that will be read. And it serves primarily to meet a particular audience. I’ll tell you why. In 2007, my book No and Me were already finalists. Philippe Claudel eventually won the prize, but my book has been read by large numbers of young people who continue to follow me since. They were 15 years old at the time, today they have 23 or 24 years old and remind me when I meet them in bookshops on the occasion of signatures, they knew me at that time, in the Goncourt part of high school students. So I think it’s a great opportunity for authors to participate in this award, and we win or not – I am well placed to say since I have not received it three times! – It allows to meet young readers and that, that, that’s great
Also read our review for Based on a true story , Delphine. Vigan
Based on a true story to Delphine de Vigan (JC Lattès, 479 p., 20 euros).
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