Published
Video duration: 8 min
VIDEO. A conversation with Jean-Baptiste Andre, winner of the Prix Goncourt 2023
He won the Goncourt prize in 2023 with his novel “Veiller sur elle”, which was also the best seller last year. Brut spoke with writer Jean-Baptiste Andre about his difficult beginnings and changing life after 40 years.
(Raw.)
He won the Goncourt prize in 2023 with his novel “Veiller sur elle”, which was also the best seller last year. Brut spoke with writer Jean-Baptiste Andre about his difficult beginnings and changing life after 40 years.
“Imagine an American desert western, there is a bus stop and they tell you: you have to wait at this bus stop for luck to pass you by. (…) I want to tell you all those who want to devote their lives to this incredible profession, which is the profession of writer or artist, in all arts: do not leave the bus station. The bus will pass. You must be there to board. Never give up, that’s really the most important thing”, explains Jean-Baptiste Andrea, author of the novel “Veiller sur elle”, awarded the Prix Goncourt in 2023. His journey is atypical. He published his first book at the age of 46, “My Queen”. However, since childhood he dreamed of being a writer. “I wanted to become a writer when I was little, the whole world told me that it wasn’t really a job, it was more of a hobby, so I started down that path.“. He worked for 20 years in cinematography.
“I am writing my first novel, My Queen, because I can no longer accept the opinions of others. I just want to write something that is me”
“I really started from scratch, armed with my enthusiasm and my naivety which were very valuable. And after 20 years of cinematography, I felt a great frustration that was a consequence of the fact that all ideas have a price, while in literature they are completely free. If I want to talk about the elephant parade that passes under the Eiffel Tower, in the cinema, it has a monstrous price. By contrast, in literature it costs nothing more than a page and some ink. So I had this frustration and I wanted the freedom that literature offered me that film no longer offered me.” declares Jean-Baptiste Andrea. Two moments in his life will be decisive: once when CNC refuses to finance his film because his universe “it’s not French enough“. And the second time, where the streaming giant explains to him that it’s his movie “too original“.
It is a heavy blow for him: ““It was very difficult because I didn’t see any escape. I am ready to fight against everything, against insecurities, doubts, etc., but the joy of doing something, I hope, a little more original, a little different, takes away from me here and there, I saw a huge Black Hole. It took me a week. After a week, a famous novel that I had been thinking about for four years, not knowing how to approach it, came to light while I was walking my dog because I heard this sentence that first knocked me out and then saw another way. And that’s where I wrote my first novel, My Queen, because I can no longer accept other people’s opinions. I just want to write something that is me, and I’m writing this novel in some kind of uncontrollable impulse“. He was 45 years old then.
“While I’m writing it, I say to myself: what a joy! I feel like I’ve returned to the purest source of what I love”
“As I write that, I say to myself: what a joy! I feel like I’ve returned to the purest source of what I love, having climbed up a river that was getting more and more polluted and I’m under this beautiful waterfall in the middle of nature. And I remember saying to myself: never forget this joy, never compromise yourself again. But paradoxically, I don’t say to myself: you are writing this book to be published. I am writing this book only to reconnect with myself, whom I love deeply”. But the writer is not at the end of his troubles. He sent the manuscript to 15 publishing houses and received 15 rejections. “But I am a very optimistic person. I loved this novel. I say to myself: someone will understand. Coincidentally, at that time someone was telling me about L’lconoclaste, who had been creating beautiful books for 20 years, but no novels yet. I send it to them, I get a phone call, where they tell me: above all, don’t show it to anyone, come, we love your novel. And it changes my life“. Literature is for him “a way to be fully in the world. I often feel like I don’t live in the same world as other people, but that’s okay. Anyway, I’m sharing it. And what was wonderful was that, on the contrary, very early on I encountered a readership that told me: I see the same world as you. This is the great joy of my life”, concludes Jean-Baptiste Andrea.