" En ce temps-l nous habitions Montmartre. Une maison miraclifique de sept tages par temps calme et de six les jours de bourrasques. " Tmoin d'vnements extravagants, le dernier tage de cette Tour des miracles est le refuge de personnages grotesques, acteurs d'histoires absurdes, plongs dans un univers irrationnel. ces tres surralistes, femmes-autruches mangeuses de pierres, voisines nymphos, acheteurs de cadavres, s'opposent les " pupazzi de pacotille ", individus normaux, s'il en est. Georges Brassens nous livre une fresque railleuse et truculente sur la vie de cette confrrie extraordinaire, l'image de son univers musical.
Georges Charles Brassens was a French singer-songwriter and poet.
As an iconic figure in France, he achieved fame through his elegant songs with their harmonically complex music for voice and guitar and articulate, diverse lyrics. He is considered one of France's most accomplished postwar poets. He has also set to music poems by both well-known and relatively obscure poets, including Louis Aragon (Il n'y a pas d'amour heureux [fr]), Victor Hugo (La Légende de la Nonne, Gastibelza), Paul Verlaine, Jean Richepin, François Villon (La Ballade des Dames du Temps Jadis), and Antoine Pol (Les Passantes). He a huge influence on several european songwriters as Fabrizio De Andrè, who reprised some of his songs.
During World War II, he was forced by the Germans to work in a labor camp at a BMW aircraft engine plant in Basdorf near Berlin in Germany (March 1943). Here Brassens met some of his future friends, such as Pierre Onténiente, whom he called Gibraltar because he was "steady as a rock." They would later become close friends.
After being given ten days' leave in France, he decided not to return to the labor camp. Brassens took refuge in a small cul-de-sac called "Impasse Florimont," in the 14th arrondissement of Paris, a popular district, where he lived for several years with its owner, Jeanne Planche, a friend of his aunt. Planche lived with her husband Marcel in relative poverty: without gas, running water, or electricity. Brassens remained hidden there until the end of the war five months later, but ended up staying for 22 years. Planche was the inspiration for Brassens's song Jeanne.
He wrote and sang, with his guitar, more than a hundred of his poems. Between 1952 and 1976, he recorded fourteen albums that include several popular French songs such as Les copains d'abord, Chanson pour l'Auvergnat, La mauvaise réputation, and Mourir pour des idées. Most of his texts are tinged with black humour and are often anarchist-minded.
In 1967, he received the Grand Prix de Poésie of the Académie française.
Dans ce roman, nous suivons la vie de copains (d'abord) qui vivent au 7e étage d'un bâtiment n'en contenant que six... Absurde prémisse s'il en est! Certains y voient l'influence de Vian, d'autres lui prodiguent un goût rabelaisien.
Au final, c'est une œuvre surréaliste de Georges Brassens, où certains passages se lisent comme autant de ses superbes chansons, entre références culturelles pointues et humour potache. S'il mérite le détour pour les fans du pornographe du phonographe, je ne le conseillerais guère pour le lecteur lambda par contre.
Amo Brassens per le sue canzoni sin dagli anni dell'adolescenza; all'università avevo letto questo librino, prestatomi chissà da chi, e ne serbavo un bel ricordo. L'anno scorso ero a Losanna e l'ho visto in una libreria, 3 euro e un tuffo nel passato. Avendo nel frattempo conosciuto Vian, posso dire che secondo me hanno molto in comune. Meglio Vian, devo ammettere, ma anche Brassens mi è piaciuto pure 40 anni dopo.
This book is a transposition in a surreal register of Brassens's memories of his salad days. The recurring characters (Corne d'Auroch, Oncle Sosthène etc) and pet obsessions (cats, policemen, the wind) present in his songs are all there, as is his rabelaisian sense of humor. I must say that at times I found the scatological element got rather tiresome, but on the whole, this book is a great romp and a must-read for anyone interested in the imaginary world of one of the greatest French singers of all time.