2023-09-09 16:33:30
The author Kevin Lambert called on a “sensitivity reader” for his novel, selected in the first selection for Goncourt 2023. Nicolas Mathieu, decorated with this prestigious prize in 2018, spoke out against this practice.
The Prix Goncourt did not expect a controversy when selecting the novel by a Quebecer, until we learned that it had gone through the proofreading of a Canadian-Haitian, to avoid according to its author “certain Pitfalls of Representation of Black People”.
One of the characters of That our joy remains by Kevin Lambert, published in August by Le Nouvel Attila editions and in the running for the Goncourt 2023, is of Haitian origin. For it to be as credible as possible, the young 30-year-old novelist has secured the services of an academic and author of Haitian origin also, Chloé Savoie-Bernard. He calls her a “friend.” She was paid.
This role is called “sensitivity reader” in English, translated as “editorial deminer” or “sensitive reader”. Among North American publishers, the practice has become commonplace. The most renowned French publishing houses, on the other hand, when they use it, do not claim it, as if it risked costing them readers.
“Chloe made sure I didn’t say too much nonsense”
For Kevin Lambert, it was ancient history: the novel was published in September 2022 in Canada, by Héliotrope editions. But the French discovered it thanks to New Attila, who revealed it on Instagram on September 4, the day before the publication of the first selection of Goncourt.
Author quotes reported by the editor: “I can always be wrong. Chloe made sure that I didn’t talk too much nonsense, that I didn’t fall into certain traps of representing black people”.
“As a white man”
Friday on Radio Canada, he explained himself in more detail. “It allowed me not to write that the character was blushing, at one point. Because I was writing that as a white man, a little nono…” (dumb, in France).
The proofreader also spoke about her work, in the Montreal daily The Press THURSDAY. “I asked Kevin questions, I made him suggestions,” said Chloé Savoie-Bernard. “Not only on the character of Haitian origin, but also on the general structure of the text”.
In France, the idea that it is necessary to be of a certain skin color to judge the accuracy of certain passages of novels divides. The 2018 Goncourt prize, Nicolas Mathieu, author classified on the left, vigorously rejects it.
“Making professionals in sensitivities, experts in stereotypes, specialists in what is accepted and dared at a given moment the compass of our work, that leaves us cautious to say the least”, he wrote on Instagram Wednesday.
At the literary festival Le Livre on the Place de Nancy on Saturday, he did not want to fuel the controversy. “I had discussions with Kevin,” he told AFP. “And there is no animosity between us, quite the contrary”.
A “risky” game
The world of publishing and letters, in private, wondered above all about the motivations of the New Attila when he put forward this rereading. “It may be a publisher’s game!”, One of the competitors told AFP, to which one of his colleagues was skeptical: “They created a ‘bad buzz’. If It’s a game, it’s risky.” “Kevin Lambert will get out of the Goncourt list,” bet another editor.
If the jury recently preferred to protect itself from controversies by excluding the books which gave rise to them, two of its members affirmed to the daily The world that nothing was decided.
“This controversy will have no impact on our choice of the winner,” said one of its members, Pierre Assouline. “Nicolas Mathieu should be content to write novels (…) Let’s leave this controversy. The dogs bark, the Goncourt caravan passes!”, Abounded the secretary of this jury, Philippe Claudel.
Dider Decoin, president of Goncourt, also reacted on the occasion of the Le Livre festival on the Place de Nancy, sweeping away a “stupid controversy”:
“When you are an author, you have the right to call on whoever you want to proofread a text,” he said, as reported Le Figaro.
Nicolas Mathieu’s position aroused some sympathy from his fellow French writers. “You have to trust yourself as a writer. Document yourself of course, but listen to your imagination”, said another novelist of the literary season.
The first selection of Goncourt includes 16 titles. It will be reduced on October 3, before the list of four finalists is revealed on October 25. The prize will be awarded on November 7, at the Drouant restaurant in Paris, as is tradition.
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