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Où bat le cœur du monde
"Sa musique décrivait un coin du ciel, une façade éclaboussée de lumière, invisibles sans jazz. Il jouait et la joie se réveillait d’un rien et de partout."
À Tunis dans les années trente, Darius Zaken est frappé de mutisme après la disparition brutale de son père. Élevé par sa mère Stella qui le destine aux plus hautes études et sacrifie tout à cette ambition, il lutte pour se montrer à la hauteur. Mais le swing d’une clarinette vient contredire la volonté maternelle. Darius se découvre un don irrésistible pour cet instrument qui lui redonne voix. Une autre vie s’offre à lui, plus vive et plus intense.
De la Tunisie française aux plus grandes scènes du monde, en passant par l’Europe de la Libération et l’Amérique ségrégationniste, cette fresque est
un magnifique roman d’initiation et d’émancipation, mené au rythme étourdissant du jazz.
À Tunis dans les années trente, Darius Zaken est frappé de mutisme après la disparition brutale de son père. Élevé par sa mère Stella qui le destine aux plus hautes études et sacrifie tout à cette ambition, il lutte pour se montrer à la hauteur. Mais le swing d’une clarinette vient contredire la volonté maternelle. Darius se découvre un don irrésistible pour cet instrument qui lui redonne voix. Une autre vie s’offre à lui, plus vive et plus intense.
De la Tunisie française aux plus grandes scènes du monde, en passant par l’Europe de la Libération et l’Amérique ségrégationniste, cette fresque est
un magnifique roman d’initiation et d’émancipation, mené au rythme étourdissant du jazz.
429 pages, Paperback
Published August 14, 2019
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
July 3, 2019
Tout gros coup de cœur. Pouvoir d évocation énorme, rythme impeccable, merveilleux personnages remplis de failles et forts à la fois, et tellement d émotions. Chair de poule, petite larme, grand sourire et souffle coupé, je suis passée par tous les états mais rien ne m a laissé indifférente. C est rare et c est magnifique. Le plus beau premier chapitre que j ai lu depuis longtemps. Tellement prenant qu on ne le lache plus. Et on voyage loin et fort. Et puis cette musique, tous ces noms mythiques, on n a qu une envie, c est tout écouter au fil de l histoire. Un livre totalement magique.
August 12, 2019
Une magnifique histoire portée par une sublime écriture, balancée aux rythmes du jazz. Sans être un coup de cœur, ce premier livre de la rentrée littéraire, le 14 août prochain en librairie, est une très très belle découverte.
Depuis j’ai acquis le premier roman de l’auteur.
Depuis j’ai acquis le premier roman de l’auteur.
January 22, 2021
In 1930s Tunisia, still a French colony, Darius Zaken’s pious father plans to leave the Tunis ghetto to set up his bookshop in the modern French quarter where his son can attend the lycée. An appalling incident shatters his dreams, leaving Darius lame and too traumatised to speak. Against the odds, his mother Stella dedicates her life to his getting a good education which will lead to a professional job in mainland France, but a chance meeting with a spoilt rich girl called Lou gives him other ideas. Taking him under her wing, she introduces him to the louche world of jazz, and he develops a passion for the jazz clarinet, for which he has a remarkable talent. To his bewildered mother, jazz is a meaningless cacophony.
With the onset of World War Two, the arrival in Tunis of black American jazz musicians attached to the US Army gives Darius the change to slip away to the United States. Here he can realise his talent eventually, but in a harsh world of prejudice and segregation, where jazz is regarded as the preserve of the black population, and many of the most talented musicians addicted to drink, heroin and cocaine. A sensitive soul, Darius attracts the sympathy of a sucession of women: his mother, Lou and ultimately Dinah, an astute black American.
Focusing on the first part of Darius’s life, when he is striving to succeed, this novel is episodic, leaving the reader’s imagination to fill in the gaps. Philippe Hayat succeeds in conveying a sense of the appeal of jazz, even to someone like me who does not care much for it, but his descriptions tend to be too long, repetitious and overtechnical. I was prompted to look up the parts of a clarinet, the nature of a ride cymbal, the meanings of various musical terms like “anatole”, chabada or Lydian scale, together with researching the lives of celebrities who inspired Darius and in time actually played with him: Dizzy Gillespie, Lester Young, Charlie Parker and Billie Holiday who proved as tragically troubled in their often too short lives as Hayat describes.
This novel has a strong sense of place, be it interwar Tunis, Sicily under the WW2 Allied invasion, or postwar New York. The complex mother-son bond between Stella and Darius is well-described and moving. There are some striking, powerful dramatic scenes.
On the downside, the narrative drive is undermined by too many passages which are overlong and frankly dull. There are a few digressions too ludicrous to ring true, like the brothel where Darius is employed to play his clarinet to clients through holes in the wall through which he can view them, or Stella’s employment at a bank where she somehow becomes a financial expert in record time. Is a loss of speech through shock likely to be permanent? It is of course symbolic in that Darius expresses his emotions through the international language of music instead.
The plot structure seems weak. The opening chapter showing Darius as an old man giving his last performance, aided by the faithful Dinah, is not an engaging start, not least because we have yet to learn their backstories, and also destroys any dramatic tension since one knows from the outset that Darius will succeed.
In short, parts of this book are excellent but one has to wade through some dull passages to find them.
With the onset of World War Two, the arrival in Tunis of black American jazz musicians attached to the US Army gives Darius the change to slip away to the United States. Here he can realise his talent eventually, but in a harsh world of prejudice and segregation, where jazz is regarded as the preserve of the black population, and many of the most talented musicians addicted to drink, heroin and cocaine. A sensitive soul, Darius attracts the sympathy of a sucession of women: his mother, Lou and ultimately Dinah, an astute black American.
Focusing on the first part of Darius’s life, when he is striving to succeed, this novel is episodic, leaving the reader’s imagination to fill in the gaps. Philippe Hayat succeeds in conveying a sense of the appeal of jazz, even to someone like me who does not care much for it, but his descriptions tend to be too long, repetitious and overtechnical. I was prompted to look up the parts of a clarinet, the nature of a ride cymbal, the meanings of various musical terms like “anatole”, chabada or Lydian scale, together with researching the lives of celebrities who inspired Darius and in time actually played with him: Dizzy Gillespie, Lester Young, Charlie Parker and Billie Holiday who proved as tragically troubled in their often too short lives as Hayat describes.
This novel has a strong sense of place, be it interwar Tunis, Sicily under the WW2 Allied invasion, or postwar New York. The complex mother-son bond between Stella and Darius is well-described and moving. There are some striking, powerful dramatic scenes.
On the downside, the narrative drive is undermined by too many passages which are overlong and frankly dull. There are a few digressions too ludicrous to ring true, like the brothel where Darius is employed to play his clarinet to clients through holes in the wall through which he can view them, or Stella’s employment at a bank where she somehow becomes a financial expert in record time. Is a loss of speech through shock likely to be permanent? It is of course symbolic in that Darius expresses his emotions through the international language of music instead.
The plot structure seems weak. The opening chapter showing Darius as an old man giving his last performance, aided by the faithful Dinah, is not an engaging start, not least because we have yet to learn their backstories, and also destroys any dramatic tension since one knows from the outset that Darius will succeed.
In short, parts of this book are excellent but one has to wade through some dull passages to find them.
November 1, 2020
Philippe Hayat crée Darius Zak, un petit Juif de Tunis traumatisé par l'assassinat de son père et devenu irréversiblement muet. Fou de jazz. Il le fait vivre, pour son plaisir, parmi les Billie Holiday, Charlie Parker, Gillepsie. Aux USA racistes amoureux de jazz, paradoxe. Fiction dans la réalité de cette époque s'étalant de l'avant-guerre aux années 50. Même le non amoureux de jazz trouve plaisir dans cette fiction où le fils adorant sa mère hyperpossessive réalise son rêve.
March 4, 2021
Philippe Hayat imagine la vie de Darius Zaken, clarinettiste de jazz virtuose né à Tunis qui perd sa voix après avoir assisté enfant au lynchage de son père. On sent tout le plaisir que l'auteur a eu de faire côtoyer son personnage avec les grands noms du jazz : Charlie Parker, Billie Holiday, Miles Davis... Un récit rythmé et flamboyant qui a fait battre mon petit cœur de libraire.
October 30, 2022
Un roman où le personnage de Darius créé par Philippe Hayat évolue au coeur de la Tunisie française, du conflit de la 2nde guerre mondiale et de l'Amerique d après guerre et de la ségrégation mais surtout cotoie les grands noms du jazz. C est tellement bien écrit et prenant qu on finit par croire en l existence de Darius ce grand musicien de jazz pourtant inconnu.
March 10, 2020
Un livre où l’on rit, l’on pleure et l’on voyage en permanence. Une écriture simple sans artifice qui met l’histoire, et l’histoire seule au centre. On s’attache à Darius et aux autres personnages dès les premières pages. Un vrai coup de cœur.
February 26, 2020
Absolument fabuleux et emouvant. On a envie que lhistoire soit vrai....
je lai juste lu beaucoup trop vite.... il faut prendre le temps de savourer.
Je suis etonne quaucun film (heureusement) na ete realise...
je lai juste lu beaucoup trop vite.... il faut prendre le temps de savourer.
Je suis etonne quaucun film (heureusement) na ete realise...
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews