Ici commence la nuit

by Alain Guiraudie

- Tu aimes trop d'hommes à la fois, comment je pourrais trouver ma place dans ton cour ? - Pourtant tu l'avais trouvée ! - Non, jamais... Tu veux vivre avec des fantômes, moi, je veux vivre avec un homme en chair et en os. "C'est quoi cette connerie ?" je pense en entendant ça. Je le trouve vraiment gonflé, lui de me dire des trucs pareils mais je me force à fermer ma gueule, je sais que si je dis quelque chose, Paul va se braquer et la discussion sera encore plus difficile. Je prend un ton doux, le plus doux dont je sois capable à ce moment-là et je sais pas où je vais chercher ça mais je lui dis : - Mais les fantômes peuvent devenir de chair et d'os. - Aucun homme ne pourra être celui dont tu rêves... Même pas moi. - Même pas toi ? Je lui dis ça et j'essaie de le toucher mais je peux pas, je me dis que ça va le faire partir et je veux qu'il reste auprès de moi, je suis même prêt à tout pour ça mais tout de suite après, je me retrouve dans une chambre en train de caresser le sexe de Pépé, un petit sexe sans poil et tout rose et il éjacule plein de merde qui vient se répandre sur ses couilles et il faut que je nettoie mais je ne sais pas avec quoi.

Genres: French Literature, Gay, France, Fiction

285 pages, Broché

First published October 1, 2014

Reviews

[Doug · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5, rounded down.

I know Guiraudie only as the provocateur film writer/director behind STRANGER BY THE LAKE, one of the most daring and unsettling films of the last decade. Several of the elements of that have been recycled here for his debut novel, which at the same time that I thoroughly enjoyed it, I would be hard pressed to recommend to anyone in my immediate circle! It's not for nothing this won the Prix Sade award, and the comparisons to Bataille and B.E. Ellis are also apt.

There are several grotesque and scatological set pieces, and anyone with squeamishness around outré sex practices should stay miles away from it. But I found it propulsively readable, in a fine translation that takes care to include the occasional Occitan sections (with footnote translations). Guiraudie's only other book is over 1,000 pages and hasn't been translated as yet, but I'd be up for the challenge should that ever happen - he's just that intriguing and unusual.

[Heronimo Gieronymus · Rating 5 out of 5]

As a dyed-in-the-wool übercinephile, it is with some shame that I admit to having only seen two of Alain Guiraudie's five feature films (and none of his shorts or two early near-features). The two films I have seen, NO REST FOR THE BRAVE (2003) and STRANGER BY THE LAKE (2013), could hardly be more different, though they are each in diverse respects emblematic of a robust individual sensibility. Though NOW THE NIGHT BEGINS bears many obvious superficial similarities to STRANGER BY THE LAKE (they are products of the same creative period, share a milieu as well as archetypes), NO REST FOR THE BRAVE, when I saw it way back, was more clearly the product of novelistic mindset, with its free-from structure, philosophical headiness, and bravura level of moment-to-moment invention (it is an eminently postmodern work in that it self-reflexively foregrounds the creative act by which it is constituted). It is probably telling that while reading NOW THE NIGHT BEGINS, I found myself on Amazon ordering the DVD of STAYING VERTICAL (2016), Guiraudie's followup to STRANGER BY THE LAKE, and perhaps, based on what I have read, something of a synthesis of the disparate approaches of the two films that I have seen. NOW THE NIGHT BEGINS is obviously the first novel I have read by Guiraudie, though, again, I would hardly count myself surprised as a viewer of his films that this is a man who also writes novels. Semiotext(e) would seem the ideal English-language publisher for this book, as it is an outrageous and outré queer phantasmagoria with implications that will make it attractive to cultural and critical theorists. It is shocking in the best sense. When one is shocked, one is liable to be roused to a highly-excited state of alertness. Guiraudie mischievously situates us within the quotidion only to aggressively jostle us back out of it. In the amazing, totally badass back-and-forth with Semiotext(e)-mainstay Wayne Koestenbaum that stands in for an Afterword here, Bruce Hainley begins by suggesting that the book is probably an all-too-necessary assault on the "cultural pusillanimity" of the "American, gay, and gay-American" scene. Prospective readers should be forewarned (or gleefully promised) that NOW THE NIGHT BEGINS fully earns its comparisons to Bataille as well as the Prix Sade it appropriately won. Readers will come to discover this in fairly short order. We begin in the quotidion, as stated, very quickly are introduced to weird, harmless, amusing, kinda-gross kink, only to suddenly be subjected to an impossibly grotesque act of scatological sexual violence and fascistic terror that is no less horrifying for very clearly being high-wire farce. The book never quite becomes as willfully monstrous again, but let me tell you, prospective reader: you will spend the rest of the journey wholly unsettled. And don't get me wrong. It never stops being what the pathologically-triggered would call "problematic." A kind of emotional-sexual gerontophilia will be central to what you will encounter, a little pedophilia thrown in for good measure. While the "gay experience," and cruising especially (no surprise for those who have seen STRANGER BY THE LAKE), are indeed central to NOW THE NIGHT BEGINS, never has a novel's sexual territory more avowedly demanded to be called Queer (with a capital-Q). This is a book primarily about the ways sexual desire manifests itself along a fraught continuum. For our protagonist (on a three week summer vacation like the benevolent schlub of STRANGER BY THE LAKE), sexuality and the desire for human connection continually manifest themselves in ways that are surprising and disconcerting even for him, the world of desire ever-morphing as would a dreamscape. Desire not only precipitates ecstacy, confusion, and monstrosity, it continually operates here at a dizzying pitch of sick farce. Sexuality makes his situation precarious. So does his status within late capitalism in the age of austerity; there is the looming specter of uncertain work and diminishing pay. As in STRANGER BY THE LAKE, the Adonis-like hyper-masculine queer male represents the highest pinnacle of desirability, danger, and sociopathic self-seeking. It is this concatenation of desirability and extreme danger, and the somnambulant eddying it sets in motion, which will cause readers with psychoanalysis on the mind to start riffing on the Thanatos. If you are more of the Deleuze-Guattari suprapsychoanalytic school, in the fashion of Koestenbaum and Hainley, you may wish to note how (Koestenbaum) we "desire the Law even if the Law destroys us." Of course, no novel that sets out to map dimensions of desire and sexuality would be true to its subject if it left out tenderness and care. Oh, they are here in spades. Here tenderness and care are primarily represented by way of gerontophilia. You see, to his immeasurable credit, even in delving into the hallowed realms of tenderness and care, Guiraudie operates in a register of sick farce. Wait, is it sick? I don't know. Are you a total square? Ultimately what makes NOW THE NIGHT BEGINS a literary triumph is simply its beautiful handling of the relational dynamics of constituent elements. The last element I would like to mention is Occitan, the "language of troubadours." So even the tenderness and care operate at the level of sick farce, but they are also connected to the troubadours, historicity, the whole promise of art, and our lost grace. If this is indeed a novel about the death drive, perhaps civilization itself is the analysand. Art, the enemy of society, would have itself our provisional saviour.

[Phalen Salvador · Rating 3 out of 5]

Picked this book up at the local bookstore based on an ‘employee pick’ display card. As a sucker for a good murder mystery I was intrigued by the description. Within the first 20 pages I immediately understood this was not going to be the book I thought I had picked up. I guess that’s why they say not to judge a book by its demure and unassuming cover.

Upon finishing this uniquely disturbing but fascinating novel I can say I’m glad I stuck with it. Though some of the more graphic elements of storytelling were a bit jarring to me initially, I came to understand the intense level of depth and complexity it brought to the characters and their journeys. If you told me at page 15 that I would feel so strongly about the events that occurred within the last 75 pages of the book I probably wouldn’t have believed you.

While I can say that this book is probably not for the squeamish or average beach-reader, it does provide an interesting outlook on love, death, and the nuances of sexuality and desire at all ages (should one make it through to the end).

[Celestica · Rating 4 out of 5]

Une intrigue et une succession de choix en surface complètement folles, mais rendues compréhensibles - sans rien perdre de leur humour trivial et de leur onirisme - depuis le point de vue du narrateur, Gilles, un personnage qui accepte de se laisser guider par son désir. Ce désir pour les hommes, c’est l’essentiel de ce qu’il a et c’est ce qui lui appartient en propre. Aucun patron, aucune baisse de salaire, retrait de permis ou amitié délitée au fur et à mesure que les uns et les autres se sont rangés n’immobilisent l’aiguillon du désir, et c’est à sa poursuite, tortueuse et pourtant si simple, que Gilles se consacre complètement lors de ses vacances d’été. Les questions existentielles affleurent sans jamais devenir crises tout au long de cette histoire-étau d’une double passion à laquelle le harcèlement policier ne laisse aucune trêve, de plus en plus angoissante et sans issue.

Je regrette quand même que Guiraudie ait recours à la pédocriminalité comme une des illustrations de ce désir polymorphe, incertain, qui se questionne sur lui-même et sa réalité (et moins sur sa moralité, ce qui sied bien à des relations entre adultes mais moins à celles avec une ado de 14 ans). Cette relation avec l’adolescente et la rencontre importante avec Gilles à la fin du livre auraient pu être maintenues sans dimension sexuelle.

[Glen Helfand · Rating 4 out of 5]

What a strange, fever dream. It is a book to read in disbelief, in wonder of the depths of the erotic imagination. It can be read through a Freudian lens, so much about the id. But it also so, so French, so full of extreme sex and death. It begins with a vacation, the narrator, Gilles listless, a little bit bored, yet so solidly drawn to Grampa's underwear (never would I have expected to read those words or have to imagine the navy blue garment with such vividness!) Scatalogical sexual violence ensues, as do various other taboos. Decisions and actions that are plainly foolish, illegal, yet within this universe, one transgressions flows into the next. A page turner, though one where you wonder why you are so compelled--is it to experience the constant attraction repulsion? Guiradie made the film "Stranger by the Lake," and a vivid centerpiece of this book is the crux of the cinematic version. The added elements, the strange compulsions, are things that cannot be filmed, but the written word (sometimes in an archaic language) creates pictures that are indelible. Like em or not.

[Molly · Rating 5 out of 5]

What I've discovered about myself is this: If I'm to enjoy a book, I need to be at least a little bit disgusted. Disgust is my favorite emotion. It fascinates me. I have little interest in being entertained. Entertainment bores me. I want to be fascinated. I want to be nauseous. This book often disgusted me. It's not a light read by any stretch of the imagination, though it is also incredibly beautiful. That alone would have earned it 4 stars. The fifth star it earned for making me think. I like feeling as though my brain has something to chew on. My mind and my heart are richer for having read this.

Also, sometimes a book comes into your life, and it feels like it was dropped there by a fairy or an angel to help you make sense of something that's been eating at you. That's what this book felt like to me.

[Skylar · Rating 5 out of 5]

Guiraudie continues the transgressive qualities of Bataille and Genet with the perverse homoeroticism of a 40 year old man who cannot find love in a single person, choosing "ghosts" over flesh-and-bone human beings. The Prix Sade winner surely deserves such praise when it focuses on the affairs of this unsatisfied dreamer on vacation with the lives of an elderly family and their 13/14-year-old granddaughter, a brutal police captain, and several FWBs in tandem with a crime investigation. To keep it otherwise unspoiled, the various sexual activities—real or imagined—blend unsavory comedy and painful drama instigated by unmet desires in a manner which suits this director of queer, alienated films.

[Dylan Kiewel · Rating 4 out of 5]

what does it mean to desire everyone around you? the police chief despite his sticking a baton up your ass? the extremely old and extremely young alike? guys youve known for a decade and guys you meet cruising on the beach? what does it mean when an author/filmmaker (guiraudie does both) sets up this teorema like scenario repeatedly in his work? i am still busy figuring out guiraudie's game but hungry for more. the dialogue style afterword between wayne koestenbaum and bruce hainley was a riot! more afterwords that feel like fireworks !

[A13 · Rating 3 out of 5]

Удивить какими-то особенно эдакими сценами в книжках меня сложно, поэтому трусы в заднице, голый дедушка, мастурбация и многочисленные минеты меня не испугали. Утомляет бесконечный нарратив героя - рефлексирующего на все подряд инфантильного мужика средних лет, попавшего под замес. Но книга все равно крутая, конечно, озеро это, окситанский язык, инфернальная полиция и особенно ее начальник, мрак и страсти.

[Aart · Rating 3 out of 5]

Extraordinary but also a little bit unreal tale about the meaning of real love. Dreams and real life are mixed to find out when you can speak of real love. I loved the remarkable way the author uses language, but found the story not totally convincing

[Elisa]

Jpp le noter, genre y’a une chose particulièrement dérangeante (même si plein de choses dérangent, une m’agace disons) et pourtant y’a de magnifiques passages sur le désir. On aurait pu se passer de ce qui se passe avec l’ado je pense.

[Margot Aubusson · Rating 2 out of 5]

lunaire

[Karl · Rating 4 out of 5]

cum magic shit transcendence

[Kirill · Rating 2 out of 5]

Начнем с дубинки в жопе, закончим отрезанием члена. Не порно (иногда порно), но задорно.