In Europe the general public the unknown

Jean Echenoz like as much surprise that surprise. The idea to write a "suite life" - Maurice Ravel, Emile Zatopek and Nikola Tesla - came from the desire to try something new. "I needed a diversion, explains the Goncourt 1999 price." Work on another time, the interwar period. There have been fictional characters and real characters. I immediately thought to include Maurice Ravel, whose music had moved me while I was still a child. I documented on his life. And I realized that his career was much more interesting than what I had in mind. Finally, he took the place.

"Ravel" writing is proving more difficult than expected. But the effort gives so much pleasure that Echenoz continues the adventure. "I wanted to explore an area that is foreign to music and that me is foreign to me also, as is the case of sport." I wanted to stay in the world of myth also. The idea of "zatopek" came to me in the memory of his name. I spent three months in stripped one by one the numbers of "Team" from 1946 to 1956 and "Match", "Mirror of sport" and the Communist press. Initially, his name appears in any small in a brief. In the end, he is the one!

Echenoz sought to respect this passage from anonymity to fame. His book is called "Run" and "Zatopek", as could be expected after "Ravel". More importantly, his hero will be long named "Emile", precisely to page 93 (on 142 pages). Need to be printed the magical name of Zatopek wait three mythical gold medals - 5000 metres, 10,000 metres and marathon, the never-seen, never égalé - won at the Olympics of Helsinki games.

The attention to detail

Ravel, Zatopek, everybody knows. But Tesla Where therefore Echenoz went fishing this name there "I wanted to change yet field." I was reluctant between a politician and scientist. I have discussed with an American friend who suggested this name. Nikola Tesla was an inventor of genius of Croatian origin who has made the fortune of Westinghouse, among others, but which so badly defended its patents and so badly managed his affairs he died bankrupt. In Europe, the general public the unknown. But, in the United States, it is an icon. There is even a rock band and a brand of cars which bear his name. "This time, the hero of the novel is called Gregor and non-Nikola. "Because this book is much more fictionalized than the first two." "It was not morally defensible", justifies Echenoz.

Revisiting lives have nothing to do with a biography or even a conventional biographical novel. Far from it. What degree of freedom the novelist to authorize that the biographer would refuse Echenoz is impeccable on the details. In "Ravel", it ignores anything the bronzes and rose wood, to the Damascus and the ors of the "France", second ship of the name, which takes him to his triumphant tour of the United States. Nothing nor tubs of freshwater or sea water, choice of have trains - Zephyr, Hiawatha, Empire State Express, Sunset Limited, Santa Fe luxury, San Francisco Overland Limited - which the composer through the United States as a rock star. But if novelist thus spent long hours library to strip the archives to view movies, listening to recordings, browse through photos, it is to feel more free then. "It is very difficult to find the dividing line between the real and the imaginary, acknowledges." I was constantly caught between the desire to be faithful to the biographical wire and the margin of freedom that I gave me. But whenever I guess, on the basis of actual data.

In the skin of another

For example, there are three versions of a hypothetical meeting between Joseph Conrad and Maurice Ravel, who loved this author. Some claim that it never took place. Others that it had taken place once. Others still had a place in the presence of Paul Valéry. Echenoz tell the story in his own way. In "Run", the writer imagines that, in an interview with the wife of Zatopek, Dana, a Javelin champion, it is chaperonnée by a "friend" which would actually be a political police officer. "The interview is authentic." But it is so justified that I find it difficult to imagine, given the nature of the regime, that this "friend" is not a police officer. "In"Lightning", Echenoz downright invents a couple of rich patrons, the Axelrod, whose wife, Ethel, would have a small blow of heart for Nikola, aka Gregor, causing jealousy of a Secretary who devised a plot to avenge his disappointed love. It swims, in full novel.

Imagine a certain jubilation to slip as well in the skin of another, to try to feel what he felt, to see what he saw, to hear what he heard. Without to deprive himself of happiness in chemins de traverse, to let wander the imagination, to operate from the effects of magnifying glass on a detail, followed by zooms back, to drive in the game in the apostrophant here and there... Thus, Echenoz chose to focus only on the last ten years of the life of the composer, at a time where the reputation of Ravel was at its zenith, the equal of that of Stravinsky. In "Run", he only dwells not on the last years of the life of Zatopek, which for having supported the "Prague Spring", is found garbage collector to run behind a dumpster to the cheers of passers-by. In "Lightning", Gregor spends a lot of time to treat sick pigeons up to collect in its luxurious hotel suites.

The ultimate common point

What's common between the three men What is measured a genius The size is not a criterion: Ravel was minuscule, Tesla, giant. Or appearance: Zatopek dressed did anything, Ravel was very elegant, Tesla undermined as a milord. They had a certain taste for staging: Ravel stuck the anger public when Toscanini doubled the tempo of the "Bolero", Tesla was its breathtaking experiences before an audience of horror, Zatopek grimaced appallingly during races, but, once the closer finish line, would be allowed to trundle along as a gazelle. All three had a dramatic life purpose, Ravel from disease, Zatopek of the policy, his short-sightedness Tesla. The policy Instead of left, Ravel refused the légion d'honneur. Zatopek was exploited by the regime before being referred to the dustbin of history, and then sign a unglamorous confession. Tesla showed no interest in politics.

Then, the ultimate point common "They all had a form of pride or megalomania," concedes Echenoz. They were coupled to huge companies, each in its own way. They felt great loneliness in the exercise of their art. Two of them had no spouse, Ravel and Tesla. Neither had children. "As if their lives had been stolen by their art...