Bret Easton Ellis, Colette and Alain Fournier: Beigbeder's "survival library"

INTERVIEW

"The purpose of the book you hold in your hands is to say that literature should not be watered down, cleaned or purified. The best books are often salacious, disgusting, covered in spittle, obscene (...) They explore the limits , go beyond the limits, break the prohibitions. " So begins Frédéric Beigbeder's last book,

, just published by L'Observatoire editions.

The writer-journalist celebrates there 50 essential works according to him "to survive in today's world".

Alain Fournier, Colette, Philip Roth, Virginie Despentes and Francis Scott Fitzgerald meet there.

"I like books that provoke, that make you want to discuss, to argue. I need to be shocked, I campaign against boredom," says the writer, Sunday at the microphone of Nicolas Carreau, on Europe 1.

The scandal of Bret Easton Ellis and the modernity of Colette

No wonder, then, to find Bret Easton Ellis prominently in Frédéric Beigbeder's literary pantheon. “When he finished

, several editors turned him down. Yes, this is the story of a psychopath, a horrible man with all of America's flaws. Yes, he is a ultra-violent, porn, sadistic book. But obviously we must be able to tell these stories, "says the writer. He protested against the American "cancel culture", in which he found the "puritan morality" which had tried to censor the works of Charles Baudelaire and Gustave Flaubert at the end of the 19th century. "With Ellis, the Puritan censorship has won: he is no longer the best-selling authorit was in the 1980s. "

>> Find Nicolas Carreau's shows every Sunday from 2 p.m. to 3 p.m. on Europe 1 as well as in podcast and replay here

Throughout his book, Frédéric Beigbeder explores through the works cited the notions of good and evil, which he prefers mixed up than opposed.

"Cocteau said, for example, that Colette had the innocence of not choosing between the two."

From the author, he quotes

, where she tells about opium, alcohol and other carnal pleasures, through 40 years of Parisian life.

"It does not cut between good and evil, which is very modern," points out Frédéric Beigbeder. 

"Freedom is more important than morality in literature"

It celebrates both the enchantment of

, Alain Fournier, and the anguish of the

, by Fyodor Dostoyevsky, in which a man refuses to leave his home for fear of humanity. "He's an anti-hero, a mixture of Cioran and Houellebecq", smiles the writer. In his imaginary library, Fitzgerald also sits prominently. “I started loving him for the wrong reasons. For women in beautiful dresses, sad young people and fabulous parties. As I mature, I realize that his books go deeper than that. are much more melancholy than festive. " Frédéric Beigbeder lingers on

, a collection of captivating short stories, where the American writer evokes his depression and his alcoholism, renewing according to the critic "the genre of autobiographical confession". 

Over the pages, a common point seems to link the authors celebrated by Frédéric Beigbeder.

"Many writers I admire have caused a scandal. It is important to repeat that freedom is more important than morality in literature."