Maryse Condé: "I see in Jesus a man who sought the truth"

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The protagonist of

, by Maryse Condé (published by Impedimenta),

, has an adoptive father that is not very relevant and another natural, mythical and elusive one, he finds himself involved in some confusing episodes of healing the sick and is a very successful fisherman.

love relationship

with a prostitute and tends to get into trouble with the political authorities.

His name is Pascal, which could be the name of an enlightened French philosopher, but more obviously refers to Easter.

What does he remember?

"My mother was very devout.

.

My father, on the other hand, declared himself an atheist.

I have received these two contradictory influences.

So when I read the Bible, I don't feel like I'm reading more than a collection of gripping stories.

For me the Bible is not a religious book”, explains Condé (Pointe-à-Pitre, Guadeloupe, 1937), in an email.

Five years ago, when his name began to appear among the favorites for the Nobel Prize in Literature, Condé's work was

.

Since then, Impedimenta, her publisher, has published her books at the rate of one a year.

Memoirs depicting an unhappy 1960s, more or less comparable to those of Annie Ernaux (

and

);

novels that reconstruct the hidden history of Afro-Caribbean women (

);

magical-realistic stories (

)... Now,

broadens and lightens the image of Condé.

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Literature.

Ottessa Moshfegh: "I like Christianity. As a writer, it's an amazing religion"

• Drafting: LUIS ALEMANYMadrid

Ottessa Moshfegh: "I like Christianity. As a writer, it's an amazing religion"

The new novel by the Guadalupana author begins as a comedy, full of

people, of picaresque characters who, in the midst of their village adventures, speak like Greek philosophers of the possibility of reforming the human species, of making it good and generous. .

Later, that Antillean carnival in which everyone dresses up as characters from the

takes a turn and becomes a dystopia in which idealism proves impossible.

Pascal's last friend, a paternal uncle named Spirit, tells him that he will never make humans good;

.

“This is a pessimistic view of reality.

without a doubt.

I don't deny it," says Condé.

And he continues: «I don't feel like talking about my life.

Although I will say that

.

Life, more than a gift, is a series of tests.

Pascal thinks the same as me.

If anyone is curious, they can consult the memoirs of Condé, a well-to-do girl who traveled to France to study, who went to Africa in the years of independence to accompany some unreliable husband and who had to survive and save their children from the years of disenchantment with decolonization.

His Pascal is a

character : he is horrified by the rumor that spreads on his island that he is Christ revived, he does not like how others see him, he despairs of his father, he can never be satisfied with the texts in which he tries to capture his thoughts...

.

He looks like Jesus but he is much more human than divine.

«I chose the life of Jesus because I had wanted to write about that subject for a long time.

But I didn't quite dare.

I changed my mind when I read

by José Saramago,

by Amélie Nothomb, and

by Coetzee.

These books

.

Although I did not write thinking of Jesus as God, but considering him a man who dedicated himself to seeking the truth around him », says Condé.

The writer defends that, deep down, in

comedy weighs more than disenchantment.

«This is a parody story,

.

It's an attitude I inherited from my father.

Humor and irony are, in my opinion, the best weapons a writer has.

I have tried to make the book funny, at least in part.

For this reason, the character who disguises himself as God the Father

.

For this reason, the equivalent of the Virgin Mary becomes a Muslim, Judas is a trade unionist who has just become a minister, the Romans are Frenchmen who do not know much, Judea is the Bronx and Galilee is Recife.

Like Jesus, Pascal travels.

He knows a country of just men that,

.

And, in his later years, the consolation he has left is the flowers that he has grown, his equivalent of Saint Joseph, who instead of a carpenter is this time a gardener.

Condé rejects the temptation to interpret his history in a postcolonial key, in which France,

«A book always depends on the mood.

For example, I recently found out that my best friend is dying.

Therefore, if she put me to write, right now only sad words would come out.

It is a matter of moments and instants."

According to the criteria of The Trust Project

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