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Chronik
«...Au total, il est donc tout naturel que vers 1930, en ce temps de contre-révolution sociale et artistique, les meilleurs romanciers américains prennent pour base d'opération le grand réalisme critique d'avant-guerre. Une métaphore militaire en amenant une autre, je crois qu'il faut admirer la stratégie indirecte des pères fondateurs et leur descendance, par laquelle ils pénètrent dans le dispositif ennemi, c'est-à-dire la culture de masse, afin d'opérer sur ses lignes de communication...» À travers ses chroniques, Jean-Patrick Manchette retrace histoire, théorie et critique du roman noir. Des textes souvent percutants, drôles et lucides, qui révèlent la passion de l'essayiste et la rigueur de l'analyste. Ce recueil rassemble l'intégralité des chroniques Polars parues dans Charlie Mensuel, des Notes noires de la revue Polar, et plusieurs textes et préfaces traitant du roman noir ou de ses maîtres, de Dashiell Hammett à James Ellroy.
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Published June 30, 2005
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About the author
Jean-Patrick Manchette
67 books325 followersJean-Patrick Manchette was a French crime novelist credited with reinventing and reinvigorating the genre. He wrote ten short novels in the seventies and early eighties, and is widely recognized as the foremost French crime fiction author of the 1970s - 1980s . His stories are violent, existentialist explorations of the human condition and French society.
Manchette was politically to the left and his writing reflects this through his analysis of social positions and culture. His books are reminiscent of the nouvelle vague crime films of Jean-Pierre Melville, employing a similarly cool, existential style on a typically American genre (film noir for Melville and pulp novels for Manchette).
Three of his novels have been translated into English. Two were published by San Francisco publisher City Lights Books (3 To Kill [from the French "Le petit bleu de la côte ouest"] and The Prone Gunman [from the French "La Position du tireur couché"]). A third, Fatale, was released by New York Review Books Classics in 2011.
Manchette believed he had gone full circle with his last novel, which he conceived as a "closure" of his Noir fiction. In a 1988 letter to a journalist, Manchette said:
" After that, as I did not have to belong to any kind of literary school, I entered a very different work area. In seven years, I have not done anything good. I'm still working at it."
In 1989, finally having found new territory he wanted to explore, Manchette started writing a new novel, La Princesse du Sang" ("Blood Princess"), an international thriller, which was supposed to be the first book in a new cycle, a series of novels covering five decades from the post-war period to present times. He died from cancer before completing it.
Starting in 1996, a year after Manchette's death, several unpublished works were released, showing how very active he was during in the years preceding his death.
In 2009, Fantagraphics Books released an English-language version of French cartoonist Jacques Tardi's adaptation of Le petit bleu, under the new English title 'West Coast Blues.' Fantagraphics released a second Tardi adaptation, of "La Position du tireur couché" (under the title "Like a Sniper Lining Up His Shot" ) in the summer of 2011, and has scheduled a third one, of "Ô Dingos! Ô Châteaux!" (under the title "Run Like Crazy Run Like Hell") in summer 2014. Manchette himself was a fan of comics, and his praised translation of Alan Moore's Watchmen into French remains in print.
Manchette was politically to the left and his writing reflects this through his analysis of social positions and culture. His books are reminiscent of the nouvelle vague crime films of Jean-Pierre Melville, employing a similarly cool, existential style on a typically American genre (film noir for Melville and pulp novels for Manchette).
Three of his novels have been translated into English. Two were published by San Francisco publisher City Lights Books (3 To Kill [from the French "Le petit bleu de la côte ouest"] and The Prone Gunman [from the French "La Position du tireur couché"]). A third, Fatale, was released by New York Review Books Classics in 2011.
Manchette believed he had gone full circle with his last novel, which he conceived as a "closure" of his Noir fiction. In a 1988 letter to a journalist, Manchette said:
" After that, as I did not have to belong to any kind of literary school, I entered a very different work area. In seven years, I have not done anything good. I'm still working at it."
In 1989, finally having found new territory he wanted to explore, Manchette started writing a new novel, La Princesse du Sang" ("Blood Princess"), an international thriller, which was supposed to be the first book in a new cycle, a series of novels covering five decades from the post-war period to present times. He died from cancer before completing it.
Starting in 1996, a year after Manchette's death, several unpublished works were released, showing how very active he was during in the years preceding his death.
In 2009, Fantagraphics Books released an English-language version of French cartoonist Jacques Tardi's adaptation of Le petit bleu, under the new English title 'West Coast Blues.' Fantagraphics released a second Tardi adaptation, of "La Position du tireur couché" (under the title "Like a Sniper Lining Up His Shot" ) in the summer of 2011, and has scheduled a third one, of "Ô Dingos! Ô Châteaux!" (under the title "Run Like Crazy Run Like Hell") in summer 2014. Manchette himself was a fan of comics, and his praised translation of Alan Moore's Watchmen into French remains in print.
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June 9, 2012
J’ai parcouru un recueil des Chroniques de Jean-Patrick Manchette, paru il y a quelques années chez Payot & Rivages. Il y a deux raisons pour lesquelles je ne serais pas allé chercher ce livre, si Isa ne me l’avait offert par surprise. La première est que je ne suis pas friand des convictions de blaireau gauchiste que l’auteur étale plus que de besoin. C’est comme au Père Noël, j’y ai cru, c’est fini, j’ai viré agnostique et le charme est rompu. La deuxième est que ces articles sont consacrés au polar, genre pour lequel je n’ai pas trop de mépris mais aucune attirance non plus. Connaissant quelque peu la réputation de Manchette, j’ai cru comprendre qu’il était assez prisé dans la réaquerie, entre autres pour la raison qu’il a traité loyalement l’écrivain très à droite ADG, sans cacher ses désaccords idéologiques, mais en reconnaissant ouvertement les qualités littéraires. Cela me laisse froid, j’ai du respect pour ADG mais je ne cours pas après ses romans. Mais il faut convenir que Jean-Patrick n’est pas dogmatique, il est d'ailleurs le premier à dénoncer la lourdeur du roman engagé de gauche, avec pauvres opprimés affectueux d’un bord et méchants riches fascistes pervers de l’autre. C’est appréciable. Au-delà des opinions politiques, la personnalité de Manchette, telle qu’elle se révèle dans ses articles, incline à quelque sympathie. C’est un critique littéraire cultivé, qui s’exprime avec entrain et clarté, sérieux sans se prendre au sérieux, capable d’auto-ironiser sur son propre «pathos marxoïdeux», et c’est un bibliophile pratiquant la chasse aux raretés, et sachant apprécier un index. Il a même ici et là une formule heureuse qui arrache un sourire, comme quand il évoque «la chute de ce qu’on appelait autrefois la culture – devenue ce qu’on appelle aujourd’hui la culture»… (26 XII 2009)
Displaying 1 of 1 review