Au moment où j’ai écrit Temps du rêve, je n’entendais plus parler d’Inngué. Elle était semble-t-il demeurée aussi vive, turbulente, et très belle. Elle s’est mariée et est morte jeune d’un accident de voiture. Elle demeure en moi comme le premier amour impossible, celui entre enfants dans de grandes familles.
Écrit à l'âge de vingt ans (1933) et republié en avril 2012, Temps du rêve est un récit à l'aspect autobiographique et foisonnant de sentiments. Les émotions d'un enfant face à la figure féminine à différents stades sont décrites avec une plume singulière et maîtrisée par Henry Bauchau.
Henry Bauchau was a Belgian political activist and psychoanalyst who is best known as an author of poetry, novels, and plays in French language. He was born in Mechelen, Belgium on in a French-speaking family of the Catholic bourgeoisie. He studied law at the Catholic University of Leuven between 1932 and 1939 and became a regular writer for the influential Christian Democrat periodical "La Cité Chrétienne". He was also involved in the "Action catholique de la jeunesse belge" (AJCB). Although ideologically opposed to Nazism, Bauchau was inspired by the communitarian and youth movements established over the same period in Nazi Germany. As a reserve officer, Bauchau was called at the outbreak of World War II and served in the Belgian Army during the German invasion of Belgium in May 1940. He was "profoundly humiliated" by the rapid defeat and embraced the call from King Leopold III to assist in national reconstruction under the German occupation. In this end, he helped to establish a small paramilitary youth movement in September 1940 which became known as the "Service des Volontaires du Travail pour la Wallonie" (SVTW). The movement was inspired by Christian youth organisations and was ideologically royalist and patriotic. In spite of this, it was widely seen as a collaborationist movement and popularly associated with the Rexist Party. Opposed to the influx of Rexists into the movement, Bauchau left the SVTW in June 1943 and became part of the Belgian Resistance. He joined a group in hiding in the Ardennes and later fled to the United Kingdom. After Belgium's Liberation, Bauchau's wartime activities led to him being stigmatized as a collaborator. He emigrated to Switzerland where he began to focus as a writer after undergoing psychoanalysis with the French analyst Blanche Reverchon. Profoundly influenced by his experience of psychoanalysis, Bauchau's first collections of poetry was published as "Géologie" (1958). He subsequently wrote a number of well-received poetry editions, plays, and novels which he combined with his work as the director of a Swiss international college. He moved to Paris in France in 1973 and continued to publish a number of works while devoting himself increasingly to psychoanalysis. He was a friend of Albert Camus, André Gide, Jacques Lacan, and Jacques Derrida. After 1990, Bauchau's literary work received increasing recognition. He was admitted to the "Académie royale de langue et de littérature françaises de Belgique" in 1991 and won the Prix Victor-Rossel for Antigone (1997). He remained active until his death on 21 September 2012. Bauchau married Mary Kozyrev in 1936. Their son is the actor Patrick Bauchau.
Je n'avais aucune connaissance quant à cette nouvelle. Néanmoins, je ne suis pas déçue de ce qu'Henry Bauchau propose. A travers ce court récit nous, le lecteur, nous retrouvons à travers les pensées de Billy, ainsi que tous les questionnements lié à nos "premières" fois. Voici alors un livre dont la lecture se fait rapidement, tout en voulant en savoir plus sur ce qu'il advint de cette belle et juste naissante amitié.
Un joli texte poétique (comme Henry Bauchau sait en écrire) qui met des mots d'adultes sur les expériences et les émotions de l'enfance : l'amour, le chagrin, l'incompréhension, les découvertes, l'enthousiasme, les croyances, les espérances.
Un court récit (écrit à 20 ans en 1933) sur une rencontre enfantine, elle à 7 ans, lui 11. Quelques souvenirs de vacances à Maurienne. Un béguin, des transports naissants marqueront à jamais Billy, le narrateur. Quelques instants magiques puis oniriques. Un style poétique, riche indiscutable, parfois un tantinet trop.