Que no te quiten la corona

by Yannick Haenel, Pablo Martín Sánchez (Translator)

Jean, el héroe de esta singular epopeya, tiene cuarenta y nueve años, vive enclaustrado en un estudio de veinte metros cuadrados y se pasa los días viendo películas mientras se emborracha. Pero a pesar de su aparente desidia y abandono, ha escrito un monumental guión sobre la vida de Herman Melville que sólo Michael Cimino, el director maldito de El cazador, podría llevar al cine. Así que a fin de conocerlo se embarca en una búsqueda asombrosa, la de la verdad que resplandece entre el cine y la literatura, que lo conducirá a una serie de aventuras tan cómicas como extravagantes entre París, Nueva York, Colmar y un lago en Italia. La chispeante novela de un escritor que vive la literatura y poetiza la vida.

Genres: Fiction, France, Contemporary

296 pages, Paperback

First published August 17, 2017

Reviews

[Paul Secor · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very up and down book.

The downs can be off-putting, especially when the narrator relates spending days, weeks, and months in a drunken state, continually watching videos of The Deer Hunter and Apocalypse Now, and ranting and waxing philosophically about the films.

I’m probably no one to cast aspersions. I recently spent a good part of an afternoon listening to and comparing the issued and unissued takes of the studio recordings of Eric Dolphy’s “245” and “G.W.”, and the more common takes and rarer takes of Ellington’s “Tishomingo Blues” and King Oliver’s “Olga”. I’m sure there are folks who would call me crazy, and I won’t disagree. My only defense is that I only spent part of an afternoon with my craziness, wasn’t drunk, and am only writing this paragraph, not pages and pages and pages on my activity.

The ups in the novel come when the narrator leaves his apartment and has some interaction with others. He leaves Paris for a day, flies to New York, and meets with the film director Michael Cimino (his idol) to show Cimino his 700 page screenplay on the life of Herman Melvile. He has a drunken dinner party at an exclusive Parisian restaurant (the maître ‘d looks like Emmanuel Macron) with a film producer, the actress Isabelle Huppert, a beautiful museum director, with a Dalmatian named Sabbat lying under the table. He and a student rescue a young refugee couple from the police while driving around Paris looking for the Dalmatian, who's been lost. There are other adventures which occur outside his apartment. He’d have done well to have left it more often.

A couple of asides: At one point in the novel, it’s mentioned that Michael Cimino wrote a novel which was translated from English into French and was published in France. He didn't want it to be published in America. That novel does exist: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/207...

And in the course of reading Hold Fast Your Crown, I came across a chapter entitled CHARLES REZNIKOFF.
(I won’t mention more than that. Anyone who has an interest can read the novel and discover the context.)
Charles Reznikoff is one of my favorite writers and someone whose writings are generally and unjustly ignored.
I’m going to ramble a bit here (even more than I have already). About 15 years ago, my wife and I went to the bar mitzvah of the son of a very good friend. At the reception, my friend introduced me to one of the guests, a fairly well known literary person (essayist, novelist, editor, etc.) who mentioned that he hoped to edit a collection of Charles Reznikoff’s writings for the Library of America. That was 15 years ago, and it hasn’t happened yet
It’s ironic that Yannick Haenel, a French novelist, pays more attention to Charles Reznikoff than the Library of America has. I have to give Mr, Haenel some skin for that.

All of us have our own eccentric likes. (I call them weirdnesses, though that doesn’t seem to be an accepted word.) This novel is one of mine.

[Alan M · Rating 4 out of 5]

‘Back then, I was crazy.’ So begins Yannick Haenel’s novel, first published in his native French in 2017 and now receiving its English language publication, ably translated by Teresa Fagan.

This is a pretty bonkers book, to be honest. I’m torn between saying I loved it or was slightly irritated by it. Maybe both at the same time. Our central character, mostly nameless but perhaps called Jean, has written his magnum opus, a 700-page screenplay of the life of Herman Melville, but which is constantly being turned down by anyone he approaches. He becomes convinced that the best person to read it would be Michael Cimino, legendary American director of films such as ‘The Deer Hunter’ and ‘Heaven’s Gate’. Jean spends his days watching ‘Apocalypse Now’, finding philosophical profundity in every scene, and drinking heavily. We are deeply in the realms of a totally unreliable narrator as the novel constantly plays with the blurring of reality: we are never fully sure what is hallucination and what is actually happening.

Haenel throws in an abundance of Greek myths, contemporary references, nods to films and books and current affairs. This is a book full of a certain self-reference that could teeter into the verge of annoyance; again, I’m still not sure where I sit on that one, to be honest. As the narrative helter-skelters through a variety of semi-farcical events it soon becomes clear that this is some sort of quest that Jean has to make. He does get to meet Cimino in New York, whilst back in Paris he ends up meeting Isabelle Huppert and falling in love with a woman called Léna. He also manages to lose Sabbat, the dog he was looking after for his friend. As the various parts of his life become ever more complicated, he comes to realise a central truth: ‘Ultimately, that’s the only question: what do you hold dear? What do you truly hold dear?’

It's very French, it’s very po-mo, it’s an elusive and allusive journey to some sort of peace by the shores of Lake Nemi in Italy. I think in the course of writing this review I am edging towards a more positive view; I did enjoy it, and some of the scenes are just so odd that they become weirdly hypnotic. At times you are never quite sure if the central character is just paranoid or hallucinating or seeing the truth. The cultural references add to the sense that he is, quite simply, living in a world of his own, somehow outwith but part of social norms. Go with the flow, enjoy the crazy ride, and revel in an author willing to be slightly outrageous. I’ve talked myself into 4 stars, but try it for yourself!

[Liviu Szoke · Rating 3 out of 5]

2.5 stele, hai să rotunjim la 3.
Trei stele pentru idee și umor, scad o jumătate pentru introspecțiile înfiorător de dese și de prelungi, mai pun o jumătate de stea pentru fina analiză a capodoperelor „Apocalypse Now” și „Vânătorul de cerbi”, mai scad un pic pentru că nu știe ce să facă cu toate aceste personaje excentrice, și iese o zăpăceală generală.
Păcat de personaje și de situațiile comic/absurde ivite la fiecare început de capitol, stricate, irosite de divagațiile personajului principal, unul din cele mai bizare și mai sucite întâlnite de mine de mult timp încoace.
Mai multe, pe Booblog: http://www.bookblog.ro/recenzie/apara....

[Elena Petrova · Rating 5 out of 5]

Словото на Яник Енел пламти. Дори когато разказва за дълги отрязъци от време, изпълнени единствено с безкрайно гледане на едни и същи сцени от филми, пак е безумно интересен и интригуващ. Бих си го чела пак и пак с наслада!

[Tifanny · Rating 3 out of 5]

Chronique complète ici : https://www.ramona-lisa-reads.com/sin...

Tiens ferme ta couronne c'est l'histoire d'un mec qui a écrit un scénario sur Melville. Herman Melville, le papa de Moby Dick, qui se trouve être, comme on le sait depuis qu'il a reçu le Prix Nobel de Littérature, un des livres préférés de Bob Dylan (et on le sait d'autant plus que la partie de son discours sur Moby Dick pourrait être un plagiat).

Bref, le mec en question est écrivain, en passe de tourner quinqua, un peu alcoolo, avec un rien de Bukowski en plus bobo. C'est un fan de cinéma, en particulier de Cimino (cinéma-Cimino, y a pas de hasard dans la vie) donc il parle beaucoup de Voyage au bout de l'enfer (Deer Hunter en anglais, faut le savoir pour accepter la forte teneur en cerfs de ce livre), de la Porte du Paradis avec Isabelle Huppert (ça aussi ça a son importance car on rencontre Isabelle Huppert plus loin) et il parle pas mal d'Apocalypse Now de Coppola, aussi.


Bref, en bon pied nickelé qu'il est, il lui arrive toutes sortes de péripéties avec tous les ingrédients classiques de la fresque déjantée et un peu intello (compagnonnage canin, frictions avec la gardienne, galères financières, coïts crus, divagations mythologiques, apparitions mystiques de cerfs, vapeur éthyliques…). Rien de très nouveau mais ça a le mérite d'être relativement amusant.

En fait, c'est pas tellement la complaisance dans le registre du délire foisonnant qui m'a mise à distance, c'est que je me suis souvent ennuyée. Je me serais bien passée d'un bon tiers du livre. Ça fait quand même deux tiers que j'ai lu avec plaisir, c'est pas négligeable. J'ai particulièrement aimé la rencontre avec Isabelle Huppert chez Bofinger (des fois que vous auriez pas compris que j'étais fan). Elle raconte le tournage de la Porte du Paradis (avec Kris Kristofferson, siouplé) et son incubation préliminaire dans un authentique bordel du Wyoming histoire de se mettre dans la peau du personnage. Je ne sais pas si c'est vrai et je n'ai pas cherché à vérifier, mais Yannick Haenel raconte ça très bien. Et puis moi, si ça me permet de tourner une scène d'amour avec Kris Kristofferson, je suis prête à embarquer pour n'importe quel lupanar des Grandes Plaines (je parle de Kris Kristofferson jeune, faut pas pousser).

En matière d'imbrications entre littérature et cinéma, j'ai largement préféré Cortex d'Ann Scott (dont je vous parlais ici) : non seulement je ne m'y étais pas ennuyée une seconde, mais en plus il n'y avait les ronds de jambes que je trouve à Tiens ferme ta couronne.

[Johanna · Rating 1 out of 5]

C'est l'histoire d'un homme (blanc) qui parle de livres écrits par d'autres hommes, blancs, de films réalisés par d'autres hommes, blancs, de guerre, de chasse et aussi de sa bite -- très important sa bite.
On y croise quelques personnages féminins réduis aux rangs de stéréotypes soit de la gardienne d'immeuble acariâtre, soit de l'objet sexuel. Surtout de l'objet sexuel en fait. Même Artémis la déesse vierge y passe, des fois que sa virginité menacerait la virilité de l'auteur / narrateur, comme si ce soustraire à son regard était une hérésie.
Merci mais non merci.

[Philip · Rating 5 out of 5]

Some kind of anti book, rather confounding and yet endlessly thought provoking. I will need to read this one again. The book just feels right however; somehow capturing things and illuminating life in ways remarkable and unexpected.

[Caterina Pierre · Rating 5 out of 5]

I enjoyed this book for its surrealist imagery, its absurdity bordering on the comical, and its references to many wonderful museums and cultural spaces wherein many of the important scenes take place. Jean is a writer who embarks on, and completes, a screenplay on the inner mind of the writer Herman Melville, which is more than 300 pages and which nobody wants to produce. But when he gets the contact information for the director Michael Cimino (director of the Deer Hunter and Heaven’s Gate) from a producer in Paris, Jean starts an adventure that takes him to some great places, as well as down some dark roads. Jean is plagued with an overactive mind, constantly running names and connections to the point where he seems to need a break from himself. He also drinks way too much, so that allows for some interesting hallucinations to occur in the story. The surrounding characters are not given a lot of depth, but they add important context to who Jean is. There are a few loose ends at the end of the novel that are never tied up (what was Lena’s connection to Cimino? What else happens to Jean on the night of his birthday that he doesn’t remember?); but if one leaves them to the imagination, they do not weaken the story and there is then a lot of room for interpretation. It might be a good idea to watch the Deer Hunter, Heaven’s Gate, and Apocalypse Now, as they are the three movies central to Jean’s thinking, and to the plot. I enjoyed this novel and would look for others by this author.

[Christian · Rating 3 out of 5]

Haenel se regarde écrire, faire l’écrivain, dans la geste de Melville, de Faulkner, de Malraux, de Dostoievski, de Kerouac et de Whitman.
Fondamentalement, il cherche en permanence à faire des phrases, de temps en temps c’est réussi, la plupart du temps c’est rasoir.
Cependant certains passages touchés par la grâce vous entraînent et vous récompensent des autres figures lassantes et obligée de l’écrivain maudit : l’alcool, l’errance, le cul un peu crû.
La fin est l’un de ces moments de beauté.

[khaz. · Rating 1 out of 5]

The best and only interesting character was the dog and that fucker managed to lost it.

[Hattie Amelia · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not one single moment of this book made any sense, but the ending scene with the dead woman and the painting of Christ might be one of my favorite scenes in any book. I will almost certainly never re-read it, which is, I think, what the author would have wanted.

"I still felt drunk and felt heavy, my head ached but it was a pleasure to be alive, to have the night in my blood and to have lived while laughing."

[Ylva Sørli · Rating 4 out of 5]

a wild fever dream. loved it!

[Blake Fraina · Rating 1 out of 5]

It took me forever to slog through this novel. The back cover copy makes it sounds like a madcap romp filled with quirky characters doing whacky things but that’s not how it reads. In the classic tradition of “Les Philosophes Francais” (think Rene Descarte’s “I think, therefore I am”), this involves a lot of reflecting on, ruminating over and contemplating the big ideas, but almost no meaningful action. Early in the story, the unnamed protagonist (who, incidentally, is a legitimate screenwriter) explains that he’s finally completed his masterwork, a 700 page screenplay about, “…the mystical honey-combed interior of Herman Melville’s head.” Upon reading this, I was pretty certain it was meant to be funny, but as it turns out the entire novel seems to be about nothing more than the “mystical honey-combed interior” of its protagonist’s head. Which, if that’s sounds even remotely entertaining – it’s not.

The screenwriter decides he wants his Melville film to be directed by Michael Cimino (of “The Deer Hunter” fame) and manages to convince a producer friend to arrange a meeting. With the exception of a revoltingly inebriated evening at an exclusive restaurant (where he dines with the producer, actress Isabelle Huppert, a young lady whom he later beds and his neighbor’s ill-fated dalmation), nothing really happens. The entire book is either people recounting events that have taken place in the past (Isabelle Huppert tells a long story about living at a whorehouse in preparation for her work on “Heaven’s Gate,” the producer has his own protracted near-death experience saga of hitting a large deer with his car in the French countryside, the screenwriter has multiple tales of his magical evening in New York City with Cimino and, toward the end of the book, his "girlfriend" delivers a rambling eulogy for a character who is never mentioned at all in the story prior to her death) or spouting a lot of quasi-spiritual mumbo-jumbo. Telling, telling, telling. But hardly any showing. And everything seems to be ridiculously weighted with metaphysical significance. There’s also quite a bit of recurring symbolism. In particular, the Christ-like image of a deer being hunted in the forest. If the novel was even remotely engaging, I might have spent some mental energy trying to understand it all. But honestly, once I was done reading it (which proved to be an enormous chore), I had to stop thinking about it for fear that my head might explode (and my own "mystical honey-comb" might end up splattered all over the wall).

Oh, and remind me never to read any more books where people pet sit. For some reason, that never seems to end well.

[Nicolas Schneider · Rating 1 out of 5]

De ses personnages dépeints avec un manque d'imagination confondant - le narrateur est alcoolique et misanthrope donc, on imagine, brillant et torturé - à sa structure inexistante - combien de béances ? de redondances ? - en passant par son mysticisme de pacotille - ce n'est pas parce que l'on écrit cent fois "mystiquement alvéolé" que l'on est mystiquement alvéolé - , le roman de Y. Haenel est un désastre pompeux et complaisant. Un interminable chemin de croix.

Plein d'un narcissisme affligeant, le roman feint pourtant d'avoir une portée politique et sociale dans ses dernières pages quand, de façon aussi soudaine qu'absurde, son narrateur se met à halluciner des centaines de sans-papiers morts place de la République, et à imaginer que les réfugiés libyens qu'il rencontre sont des prophètes. Puis vient le bouquet final, ce grand discours de clôture censément émouvant, en réalité risible, prononcé à l'occasion de la mort d'un personnage dont on ne connaissait jusque-là pas l'existence, et qui donne lieu à une métaphore sur la sclérose en plaque comme crucifixion, et comme devenir croix - une trouvaille dont Haenel est tellement fier qu'il la répète douze fois en l'espace de trois pages. Une trouvaille parmi quelques autres, bien maladroites, qui ne parviennent pas à masquer la vacuité de l'ensemble. Il en va de même pour toutes les références citées, "les noms", qui bien que de bon goût et de bon ton (Cimino, Shiras, Melville ou Joy Division), ne suffisent pas à donner de la substance à une histoire dont l'auteur lui-même semble avoir perdu le contrôle.

[Benedict De Meulemeester · Rating 4 out of 5]

A writer writes a book about a writer. That always makes me skeptic. Moreover, in this case the writer is drunk most of the time and spends the largest part of the book in bed. Boring, self-centered intellectualism is looming but Haenel pulls it off. He’s managed to fill a book that remains stuck inside the head of the main character most of the time with suspense. On the one hand this is because those few times that the writer gets out of his wolf’s den of an appartment, incredible things happen, such as losing a dog, sailing around Manhattan with a famous director gone all goofy, rescuing Lybian refugees from the claws of the police, participating in a funeral taking place in the middle of a wine festival, etc. But what really makes you turn the pages is the search of the main character for the Truth. You expect his flings with Melville, Michael Cimino, Apocalypse Now to unveil a larger-than-life truth. And he even ends up with Jesus and a plea for resurrection. But it doesn’t happen. And the writer keeps searching. In the lake of Diana. Or is he finding it in his waiting for the love of Lena? A very enjoyable literary expression of this quest for higher truths that is the essence of our life on earth.

[Simona Moschini · Rating 3 out of 5]

Bizzarro, davvero bizzarro, e molto ambizioso.
Verso la fine perde un po' slancio, anche perché è dura mettere tutta quella carne e quei fantasmi al fuoco, e in particolare Melville da ossessione principale svanisce nel nulla, soppiantato da un reinventato Michael Cimino, senza contare il contatto con la realtà parigina contemporanea (gli attentati terroristici, le retate di clandestini...).
Diciamo che un Murakami, per fare un esempio, se la sarebbe giocata con molta più disinvoltura sul filo del surreale fregandosene di Parigi qui e ora.

Ma Haenel non è Murakami, è uno che vuole, e vuol credere di poter, far dialogare l'immaginario con la realtà, ma anche la letteratura con il cinema e con la storia dell'arte, e una storia di decadenza personale con la Storia, e l'immaginario novecentesco con la mitologia greco-romana, non senza crearsi uno stile aulico, fin troppo (quando l'aulico finisce per non significare più niente, sei nei guai).
Insomma, un libro curioso, da degustare lentamente perché di sicuro ambisce ad attirarci sul terreno dei massimi sistemi... il che ne fa un prodotto diverso dai soliti.

[Neil Griffin · Rating 5 out of 5]

So this is a mad, crazy, obsessive whale of a book. I haven't read a book as film hungry since Zeroville and am not sure if I've ever read something so exhilarating delirious. The narrator, a 50-year old wino who is obsessed with the good things-- Melville, Poe, Cimino, Apocalpyse Now, Proust etc-- is searching for something in movies and the bottom of the bottle. Through this search there are entrancing, enthralling scenes that come out of a dark dream. Something Lynchesque is always in the air as we rattle around the insane protagonist's head. Recommended, but I would definitely understand if this is too exuberant for some....

[Rivière Cécile · Rating 5 out of 5]

Incroyable. Un récit loufoque et terriblement cultivé. Des longs monologues qui pourraient, je le comprends, décourager certains lecteurs et pourtant la drôlerie et la pertinence du propos amènent un livre beau et fort.

[etienne · Rating 2 out of 5]

ENFIN FINIS
C’était long jsp si il mérite 2 peut être plus 1.5…
La première moitié du livre était ultra longue j’en pouvais plus ensuite c’est allé un peu mieux. Un peu bizarre parce que à chaque fois qu’on nous présente un personnage féminin on va avoir plus tard le droit à une anecdote sexuelle sur elle ce qui est pas le cas pour les personnes masculins. L’auteur on dirait juste qu’il étale sa culture avec des longues descriptions de films de plusieurs pages et des citations et des références toutes les deux secondes. Il se passe pas grand chose dans le livre et ça part dans tout les sens mais les 3/4 du temps ça parle d’un gars qui pense avec sa bite (dont il adore parler) bourré sur son canap qui regarde des films et qui à la fin aurait tout comprit à la vie et à la vérité. Au moins ça va me faire découvrir le cinéma de Cimino on va dire…

[Yoana Miteva · Rating 5 out of 5]

Съвременен писател-декадент търси абсолюта неистово, по френски интелектуално, с куп препратки към други изкуства.

[Glenn · Rating 5 out of 5]

Having just read several novels that were definitely interesting but also not quite MY JAM (the Markson came the closest), I found this to be ABSOLUTELY my jam and devoured it with delight and awe.

[Hannah Trautwein · Rating 3 out of 5]

some profound nuggets hidden within an unedited slog of bizarre references

[Taylor Lee · Rating 4 out of 5]

Who can utter the words a soul in ecstasy upon the tablet of existence lets flow? None among you, for such translation is the stuff of moments that make a lived life lived bursting its seams. The perfect novel would be not written in a tongue of language, but, silently, with shapes in the mind. Literature, garbed as we know it in imperfection, yet wears royal tatters, the heir of human greatness crowned upon its brow. We reach, and our best efforts bring us closer to the elixir on which the poetry of life does mix.

[Ivan Dimitrov · Rating 4 out of 5]

Романът на Яник Енел ме грабна още от първата страница с дългите си изречения, отсъствието на битовост и красивия танц със стила. Това не означава, че книгата е нечетивна, напротив - може да се изгълта наведнъж, стига човек да има време. Историята също е красива - романист е оставил прозата, за да напише роман за Мелвил, който е с безумно голяма дължина и той си представя Майкъл Чимино като най-подходящия режисьор за неговата екранизация. "Дръж здраво венеца си" е една от книгите, които те поддържат в състояние на наслада. Избегната е употребата на елементарни трикове, липсва усещането за "занаятчийство", което присъства при все повече автори. Към края някак всичко поспадна и се поспихна, но това не означава, че романът не е добър. Вероятно просто съм сноб и претенциозно копеле. Книгата си заслужава и ще ми е интересно да прочета мненията и на други хора, които са пропътували през нея.

[Dylan · Rating 2 out of 5]

Si prétentieux et pesant qu’il rend le personnage d’Isabelle Huppert bien chiant. Vraiment un roman parfait pour ceux qui aime tenir salon aux gens qui ne peuvent les fuir. Il passe ses temps en décrivent des scènes bien connues des films et romans comme si le lecteur aurait envie de lire une page Wiki. Quand on se plaint de la blancheur imposante des prix littéraires et les romans qui y sont fêtés, on parle de celui-ci.

[Pascal · Rating 3 out of 5]

Un roman qui part un peu de nulle part qui n'arrive on ne sait où...mais qui arrive à nous faire chavirer, voyager dans l'imaginaire de l'auteur, les divagations du personnage principal...un peu ardu à suivre mais des passages hilarants et des mots brillants.

[Cecile · Rating 4 out of 5]

Un livre enlevé et bien écrit, un soupçon de pédantisme. C’est très drôle par moments. Bref une bonne lecture et l’histoire d’un gars de 50 ans un peu paumé.

[Emmanuelle Marion · Rating 4 out of 5]

dommage que la fin soit si convenue...

[Anne · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ce livre est brillant, foisonnant mais tellement dispersé que parfois il perd le lecteur. Etv il me manque un personnage fondamentalement sympathique...

[Mathieu Latour · Rating 2 out of 5]

Dans la catégorie : on peut passer son tour. Ennuyeux.