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Le voyage du canapé-lit
Mal aimée par une mère avare et dure, sa fille unique, à la mort de celle-ci, hérite d’un canapé-lit remarquablement laid. Elle charge ses deux fils et sa belle-fille de transporter la relique depuis la banlieue parisienne jusque dans la maison familiale d’Auvergne. Durant cette traversée de la France en camionnette, les trois convoyeurs échangent des souvenirs où d’autres objets, tout aussi dérisoires et encombrants que le canapé, occupent une place déterminante. À travers l’histoire du canapé et de ces objets, c’est toute l’histoire de la famille qui est racontée, mais aussi celle de la relation forte et conflictuelle entre les deux frères.
Un récit
hilarant, parfois féroce dans la description des névroses familiales, plein de tendresse bourrue, de hargne réjouissante, d’érudition goguenarde.
Un récit
hilarant, parfois féroce dans la description des névroses familiales, plein de tendresse bourrue, de hargne réjouissante, d’érudition goguenarde.
272 pages, Kindle Edition
Published January 10, 2019
5 people are currently reading
40 people want to read
About the author
Pierre Jourde
67 books6 followersPierre Jourde, born on December 9, 1955, in Créteil (France), is a prominent French writer, also an university professor, and literary critic renowned for his provocative and incisive works that challenge societal norms and literary conventions. Growing up in a family with roots in the rural Auvergne region, Jourde developed an early fascination with the tensions between urban modernity and isolated provincial life, themes that would permeate his writing.
Jourde has taught French literature at the University of Grenoble (formerly Université Stendhal), where he specialized in 19th-century authors like Joris-Karl Huysmans, even co-editing a comprehensive edition of Huysmans' novels and short stories for the prestigious Bibliothèque de la Pléiade collection in 2019. As a critic, he has contributed to major publications, including sharp polemics in "Le Monde" and collaborations such as the bestselling Le Jourde & Naulleau (2004), co-authored with Éric Naulleau, which lampooned the pretensions of the French literary establishment.
Jourde's literary output is diverse and often controversial, blending novels, essays, and pamphlets. His debut novel, Les Peupliers, appeared in 1989, but he gained wider recognition with Festins secrets (2001), a satirical exploration of hidden desires in a small-town setting. His most infamous work, Pays perdu (2003), a semi-autobiographical novel depicting the decay and violence of his ancestral village of Lussaud in the Cantal department, sparked a real-life scandal. Upon returning to the village in 2005 with his family, Jourde was confronted by enraged locals who recognized themselves or their deceased relatives in the book's unflattering portraits. The incident escalated into a physical altercation, with stones thrown at his car, forcing him to flee. This event inspired La Première pierre (2006), a reflective essay on the violence provoked by literature.
Other notable novels include Les Bars lunaires (1993), L'Heure des singes (1998), and more recent works like Le Dégoût (2017) and Winter is Coming (2020), which continue his themes of alienation, grotesque realism, and cultural critique. His essays, such as La Littérature sans estomac (2002), deliver biting attacks on what he sees as the bland, politically correct conformity of contemporary French letters, drawing comparisons to polemicists like Philippe Muray.
Jourde's style is marked by dark humor, visceral prose, and a refusal to shy away from the abject or politically incorrect, often placing rural France under a merciless microscope.
He has two children, including the writer Gabriel Jourde, and resides between Paris and his native region. Despite—or perhaps because of—his penchant for provocation, Jourde remains a vital voice in French literature, unafraid to interrogate the "empire of goodness" that he believes stifles authentic expression.
Jourde has taught French literature at the University of Grenoble (formerly Université Stendhal), where he specialized in 19th-century authors like Joris-Karl Huysmans, even co-editing a comprehensive edition of Huysmans' novels and short stories for the prestigious Bibliothèque de la Pléiade collection in 2019. As a critic, he has contributed to major publications, including sharp polemics in "Le Monde" and collaborations such as the bestselling Le Jourde & Naulleau (2004), co-authored with Éric Naulleau, which lampooned the pretensions of the French literary establishment.
Jourde's literary output is diverse and often controversial, blending novels, essays, and pamphlets. His debut novel, Les Peupliers, appeared in 1989, but he gained wider recognition with Festins secrets (2001), a satirical exploration of hidden desires in a small-town setting. His most infamous work, Pays perdu (2003), a semi-autobiographical novel depicting the decay and violence of his ancestral village of Lussaud in the Cantal department, sparked a real-life scandal. Upon returning to the village in 2005 with his family, Jourde was confronted by enraged locals who recognized themselves or their deceased relatives in the book's unflattering portraits. The incident escalated into a physical altercation, with stones thrown at his car, forcing him to flee. This event inspired La Première pierre (2006), a reflective essay on the violence provoked by literature.
Other notable novels include Les Bars lunaires (1993), L'Heure des singes (1998), and more recent works like Le Dégoût (2017) and Winter is Coming (2020), which continue his themes of alienation, grotesque realism, and cultural critique. His essays, such as La Littérature sans estomac (2002), deliver biting attacks on what he sees as the bland, politically correct conformity of contemporary French letters, drawing comparisons to polemicists like Philippe Muray.
Jourde's style is marked by dark humor, visceral prose, and a refusal to shy away from the abject or politically incorrect, often placing rural France under a merciless microscope.
He has two children, including the writer Gabriel Jourde, and resides between Paris and his native region. Despite—or perhaps because of—his penchant for provocation, Jourde remains a vital voice in French literature, unafraid to interrogate the "empire of goodness" that he believes stifles authentic expression.
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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
May 17, 2024
This is a fast read - I enjoy reading humor so picked this up while in Paris.
At its best this book is a witty use of fanciful language and narrative structure. The "Canape -lit" of the title is really just a contrivance, and the trip itself barely holds the narrative together. Also, the purported theme of objects does not hold - the stories are not particularly about objects.
At its worst this is a one-man stand-up show, and it feels like being stuck in a party where that one guy tells the same practiced stories again, and not only can he tell his stories but he can also shut everyone else up, and he can travel back and forth in time to contrive the best possible bons mots.
And there is this very French unease about what it is to be bourgeois and not like the bourgeoisie - the author mocks the middle class but he has been skiing for decades and has multiple country houses. He fancies himself a "baroudeur" explorer but in fact describes run-of-the-mill backpacker antics along famous stops of the Gringo trail. No, of course, he's not a rich kid smoking pot in developing countries, bouncing from youth hostel to youth hostel, he's a tough adventurer... That's okay, until he starts to describe Native Americans both from Central and North America, and then it's time for someone to tell him to shut up but you can't do that because it's his story and no one else can be anything other than an accessory to His greatness.
To his credit he does critique himself as well at one point, through a little monologue he places in Martine's mouth. In the end the book is a little bit funny, but it suffers from the disease of cynicism and irony. One can be ironic and clever or smart (Confederacy of Dunces, for example). One cannot really be ironic and great, inspiring, or thoughtful.
At its best this book is a witty use of fanciful language and narrative structure. The "Canape -lit" of the title is really just a contrivance, and the trip itself barely holds the narrative together. Also, the purported theme of objects does not hold - the stories are not particularly about objects.
At its worst this is a one-man stand-up show, and it feels like being stuck in a party where that one guy tells the same practiced stories again, and not only can he tell his stories but he can also shut everyone else up, and he can travel back and forth in time to contrive the best possible bons mots.
And there is this very French unease about what it is to be bourgeois and not like the bourgeoisie - the author mocks the middle class but he has been skiing for decades and has multiple country houses. He fancies himself a "baroudeur" explorer but in fact describes run-of-the-mill backpacker antics along famous stops of the Gringo trail. No, of course, he's not a rich kid smoking pot in developing countries, bouncing from youth hostel to youth hostel, he's a tough adventurer... That's okay, until he starts to describe Native Americans both from Central and North America, and then it's time for someone to tell him to shut up but you can't do that because it's his story and no one else can be anything other than an accessory to His greatness.
To his credit he does critique himself as well at one point, through a little monologue he places in Martine's mouth. In the end the book is a little bit funny, but it suffers from the disease of cynicism and irony. One can be ironic and clever or smart (Confederacy of Dunces, for example). One cannot really be ironic and great, inspiring, or thoughtful.
November 28, 2020
Mouais. Bon. Je ne sais pas quoi penser de ce livre. En plus je n’aime pas donner un avis négatif en tout point à un livre.
Quand j’ai acheté ce livre il y avait un bandeau avec écrit « hilarant ». Alors c’est possible que je n’ai pas d’humour mais je n’ai que très peu rigolé... . Ce roman, on ne sait d’ailleurs pas si c’est vraiment un roman ou une autobiographie est une succession chapitre après chapitre d’anecdotes racontées par l’auteur. Le personnage du livre et d’ailleurs l’écrivain. Est-ce que l’auteur a vraiment vécu ces anecdotes ? Je ne sais pas. La fin m’aura légèrement fait sourire car la chute est basique et attendue, ce livre ne va pas rester dans ma mémoire.
Quand j’ai acheté ce livre il y avait un bandeau avec écrit « hilarant ». Alors c’est possible que je n’ai pas d’humour mais je n’ai que très peu rigolé... . Ce roman, on ne sait d’ailleurs pas si c’est vraiment un roman ou une autobiographie est une succession chapitre après chapitre d’anecdotes racontées par l’auteur. Le personnage du livre et d’ailleurs l’écrivain. Est-ce que l’auteur a vraiment vécu ces anecdotes ? Je ne sais pas. La fin m’aura légèrement fait sourire car la chute est basique et attendue, ce livre ne va pas rester dans ma mémoire.
June 17, 2024
Molto carino romanzo di Pierre Jourde che ruota attorno al trasporto di un divano letto.
Per vicende familiari di eredità e ricordi, la madre del protagonista da a Pierre, al fratello e alla moglie del fratello, il compito di trasportare il divano letto della nonna, appena morta, in una casa di famiglia distante 7 ore di furgone.
Il viaggio sarà un pretesto, una cornice in cui Pierre e il fratello dipingeranno i ricordi della loro vita, dall'infanzia fino ai tempi più recenti, da quando erano due scapestrati fino a diventare adulti affermati.
Il libro è un susseguirsi di aneddoti molto simpatici, a volte anche arguti e pungenti, sulle loro dinamiche familiari o su avventure di viaggio, esperienze lavorative particolari.
Molto interessante è l'alternanza fra racconti del passato, momenti addirittura futuri, e descrizione del viaggio in corso, con mete geografiche, monumenti e personaggi dei luoghi che attraversano.
In questo libro ho ritrovato, ed essendo citato penso sia palese, tanto di "tre uomini in barca", di Jerome. Innanzitutto c'è un viaggio, ma non solo, il viaggio è un pretesto per raccontare altro, con sarcasmo e simpatia. C'è la legge di Murphy per esempio, che colora di ironia alcuni momenti.
Non posso ignorare però il senso di troppo che provo quando leggo libri del genere, essendo gli aneddoti spesso scollegati fra loro, il viaggio diventa un contenitore con una trama che si sviluppa lentamente e non avrebbe chissà cosa da offrire. In questi casi da metà libro in poi desidero che la lettura finisca e mi interesso sempre meno ai singoli aneddoti.
Per vicende familiari di eredità e ricordi, la madre del protagonista da a Pierre, al fratello e alla moglie del fratello, il compito di trasportare il divano letto della nonna, appena morta, in una casa di famiglia distante 7 ore di furgone.
Il viaggio sarà un pretesto, una cornice in cui Pierre e il fratello dipingeranno i ricordi della loro vita, dall'infanzia fino ai tempi più recenti, da quando erano due scapestrati fino a diventare adulti affermati.
Il libro è un susseguirsi di aneddoti molto simpatici, a volte anche arguti e pungenti, sulle loro dinamiche familiari o su avventure di viaggio, esperienze lavorative particolari.
Molto interessante è l'alternanza fra racconti del passato, momenti addirittura futuri, e descrizione del viaggio in corso, con mete geografiche, monumenti e personaggi dei luoghi che attraversano.
In questo libro ho ritrovato, ed essendo citato penso sia palese, tanto di "tre uomini in barca", di Jerome. Innanzitutto c'è un viaggio, ma non solo, il viaggio è un pretesto per raccontare altro, con sarcasmo e simpatia. C'è la legge di Murphy per esempio, che colora di ironia alcuni momenti.
Non posso ignorare però il senso di troppo che provo quando leggo libri del genere, essendo gli aneddoti spesso scollegati fra loro, il viaggio diventa un contenitore con una trama che si sviluppa lentamente e non avrebbe chissà cosa da offrire. In questi casi da metà libro in poi desidero che la lettura finisca e mi interesso sempre meno ai singoli aneddoti.
November 23, 2025
A very easy read full of coq-à-l'âne, cheesy jokes, satirical descriptions of some of the silliest rituals of literary life (like the annual session where a bewildering number of obscure prizes are awarded by the Académie Française) and occasional bits of serious introspection. The loose framework of the book is the long drive undertaken by Jourde, his brother and his sister-in-law to take a cheap sofa + 2 matching chairs from Créteil to the family's holiday home in a remote village of Auvergne. The Jourde brothers have reluctantly agreed to do this to please their mother, who had inherited the furniture from her own mother. Jourde's take on dysfunctional family dynamics is hardly original and at times this book is utterly trivial even by its own low standards. Still, there's no denying that Jourde is a very nimble ironist, and the melancholy ending contains some truly beautiful sentences.
February 27, 2023
De Paris à l'Auvergne, suivez Pierre, Bernard et Martine dans la camionnette qui ramène dans la maison familiale un monstrueux canapé lit ayant appartenu à leur (méchante) grand-mère décédée. Au fil des kilomètres, les étapes du voyage s'entremêlent aux souvenirs, passés et futurs, de l'auteur. À l'intérieur de l'habitacle, les personnages nouent une conversation aux allures métalittéraires et philosophiques, s'adressant volontiers au lecteur (s'il y en a). Si ce dernier côté peut à la longue devenir fatiguant, plusieurs passages ne pourront que vous arrachez un franche fou rire. L'épilogue, en revanche, est teinté de mélancolie. Dans l'ensemble, ça vaut le coup.
September 22, 2024
[FR] Pierre Jourde sous couvert d’un déménagement post décès nous livre les tribulations de 3 compères dans l’absurdité des objets de leurs vies dans un style aux phrases bien senties utilisé sans compter dans des nouvelles caustiques pour ne pas dire parfois corrosives…
[EN] Pierre Jourde, under the cover of a post-death move, gives us the tribulations of 3 friends in the absurdity of the objects of their lives in a style with well-felt sentences used without counting in caustic, not to say sometimes corrosive, news...
[EN] Pierre Jourde, under the cover of a post-death move, gives us the tribulations of 3 friends in the absurdity of the objects of their lives in a style with well-felt sentences used without counting in caustic, not to say sometimes corrosive, news...
June 14, 2022
Je découvre l'auteur avec ce titre, et pourtant, il a déjà écrit nombres de romans auparavant.
J'ai aimé l'humour du narrateur-auteur, le regard critique qu'il porte sur sa famille.
J'ai aimé les synonymes du verbe répondre, certains m'ont fait sourire.
En refermant ce livre, je me suis demandé si le narrateur-auteur faisait autre chose que voyager....
L'image que je retiendrai :
Celle du parfum chimique de toilettes au jasmin.
J'ai aimé l'humour du narrateur-auteur, le regard critique qu'il porte sur sa famille.
J'ai aimé les synonymes du verbe répondre, certains m'ont fait sourire.
En refermant ce livre, je me suis demandé si le narrateur-auteur faisait autre chose que voyager....
L'image que je retiendrai :
Celle du parfum chimique de toilettes au jasmin.
February 16, 2021
Le livre laisse entendre une Road story malheureusement je n ai pas trouvé d intérêt aux histoires racontées (pas drôle du tout ). C est plutôt sympa de prendre à parti le lecteur mais il manque du suspens dans les anecdotes . Cela rend le narrateur très égocentrique et très fier de sa petite personne... est ce une autobiographie ?
Si quelqu’un peut me conseiller un autre livre de l auteur ?
Si quelqu’un peut me conseiller un autre livre de l auteur ?
July 27, 2019
De détours en circonvolutions la construction cynique et bavarde du roman familial
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews