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[31.8.05] [Andrew Gallix]
A L'OMBRE DES JEUNES GENS EN FLORE
 Back in January, Bruce Benderson talked to 3:AM about his new novel, The Romanian , which was published in French translation (and won the coveted Prix de Flore) before appearing in the US. In fact, it will only be published over there in February:
"It took me four years to write my longest book to date, a memoir that I entitled The Romanian: An Erotic Memoir (now being published under the subtitle "Story of an Obsession" -- ed), and the book finally ended up at 480 manuscript pages. A significant part of it was written simultaneously with it happening, while I was in the drama of the nine-month relationship that inspired the book. Many reviewers have asked me whether I was motivated to pursue such a risky involvement only because I wanted material to write about, but what happened was much more spontaneous than that. I fell in love at first sight and felt motivated to write about it, starting on the first morning of the encounter. The two parallel impulses -- obsessive passion and obessive writing -- continued hand in hand, each nourishing the other. I knew the book was 'alive' because I was living it in a literal sense.
The Romanian recounts my disorientating passion for a Romanian vagrant, discovered on the banks of the Danube while I was in Budapest, where I'd been sent in late 1999 by an online magazine to do a report on Eastern European brothels. Three months later, I followed him to Bucharest, and we set up house there for approximately four months. Eventually, my journal of this experience also became the story of a love affair with a culture, and the book now recounts a journey into the heart of Romanian culture and history, colored by the vicissitudes of my passion.
Once the book was finished, I spent two years trying to sell it to American publishers. Most agents and editors had the same response: they appreciated the core story of passion but felt that the historical sequences -- which tried to establish a parallel between my love affair and the scandalous love affair of King Carol, the last king of Romania, for the Jewess Lupescu, during a time of rising anti-Semitic fascism -- were too contrived and distracted from the main story. Only some brave literary magazines, 3:AM Magazine among them, published excerpts of the book.
While I was trying to publish the book unsucessfully in America, my usual French publisher, Payot & Rivages, took it. The book was released in France in September 2004 under the somewhat absurd title Autobiographie erotique, to glowing reviews. The most interesting aspect of this was the fact that almost every single French critic lauded the historical sequences, marveling at how well integrated they were with the main story. This was the exact opposite of the reaction of the American editors and agents.
In November 2004, I became the first foreign writer to receive the Prix de Flore, a French literary prize always reserved for young French writers -- Michel Houellebecq and Virginie Despentes among them. It was the tenth anniversary of the prize, and the judges argued that although the book was a foreign translation, it had been published only in France and written by a writer who spoke French fluently, which I do. Because this French prize came at a time when Franco-American relations were excessively strained, I was touched by their selection. In one way, it was telling America off by saying, 'See, we've recognized the value of a book that you Americans haven't even bothered to publish'. But there was also a covert gesture of friendliness to America in their choice, which in my eyes had some poignancy.
For me, the book was the culmination of thirty years of cultural fantasy. From my teenage years I'd been rather alienated from the Anglo-Saxon literary tradition and had been more apt to read French literature in translation than the great British and American classics. My writing is partly inspired by Baudelaire, Huysmans and the nouveau roman, but I'd never dreamed that any of my great respect for French culture would be returned.
When I came back to New York after receiving the Prix de Flore, Ken Siman, an editor from Tarcher, a division of Penguin USA, made an offer for the book. It will be published in the U.S. in 2006."
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