The romance novel arrived from France at the top of the charts, with more than 100 thousand copies sold in a very short time, Love is a simple thingOf François Bégaudeaupublished by Salani.
Love is a simple thing it is one of those rare and precious books which know how to reinvent the love story as an ever-renewed daily miracle.
“There are things that the more we know them, the more mysterious they are”: this is what Jacques Moreau says about the bees in his nephew’s hives. And we could say the same thing about the love that linked him to Jeanne all his life, because being close to him, doing it for decades, is something that is learned every day and that we never stop to understand.
François Bégaudeauthat he wrote, wrote and starred in The classbestselling novel in France and Palme d’Or film at the 2008 Cannes Film Festival, talks to us about his new novel which is a hymn to simple love.
Why is love such a simple thing? Can you explain the meaning of the title of your book?
In reality, the original title, in French, was simply Love, Love. But when I was told the one chosen for the Italian version, Love is a simple thingI found it very appropriate and it would have been perfect in French too.
I titled my book simply Lovebecause I am referring to pure, naked love, without embellishments of any kind. I don’t think it’s the only type of love. There are many. There is passionate love, short and intense, conflictual where arguing is part of the way of loving each other. But in my book, I wanted to talk about slow and serene love, because it is the type of love that moves me a lot. It arouses tenderness in me and that’s exactly what I wanted to talk about.
The protagonist couple of Love is a simple thing Is this inspired by real people?
It may be difficult for Italian readers to realize this. But the protagonists of my novel, Jeanne and Jacques, live in the region of France where I am from. It’s a rural area and that’s where my grandparents are from. The couple I’m talking about is therefore inspired not so much by my parents, separated at 50, as by couples who were friends of my parents. I was inspired by the post-war generation of the 1950s, working class where there was no divorce. Whereas divorce in France concerned more the bourgeoisie. So around me, I had couples who were together all their lives, until the end. As for my generation, I have several friends who have been together for 30 years. So I believe that this model is still in the majority, that is to say couples who spend their entire lives together.
How would you define your writing style?
First of all, in this book I was interested in accuracy. Perhaps this applies to all writers, but for me, a good sentence is a fair sentence, not a beautiful one or one full of stylistic flourishes. What my readers tell me is that my style is refined, sober, without exaggerated use of metaphors and images. And here I went further, because I’m talking about simple people, not fictional characters. I wanted to be sober, like my characters are in the novel. In other cases I may write differently, but here I wanted the language to be simple and calm, like the love I’m talking about.
Besides a writer, you are also an actor. He tells us about his experience on the set of The class?
It was a strange and very rare adventure, because it is a film which is the adaptation of my book, The classwhich talks about my experience as a teacher. So shooting this film was very special, I had the role of the professor who was built on my life. I’m not an actor, but I found it easy to operate in this context, because there was no need to have any particular acting skills. Even the children who participated in the film were playing for the first time. But the result, by all accounts, was very convincing. On the set, there was a relaxed and joyful atmosphere, also thanks to the director (Laurent Cantet editor’s note), unfortunately deceased, who had the stroke of genius to create a very human environment and I think that is felt in the film. .