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Pierre Senges |
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PRIX WEPLER-FONDATION LA POSTE 2015
PRIX DE LA PAGE 111
Le lecteur trouvera ici la suite véridique des aventures d’Achab, soi-disant capitaine, rescapé de son dernier combat contre un poisson immense. |
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On verra comment ce retraité à la jambe de bois a tenté de vendre au plus offrant son histoire de baleine – sous forme de comédie musicale à Broadway, puis de scénario à Hollywood. En chemin, on croisera Cole Porter et ses chorus girls, mais aussi Cary Grant, Orson Welles, Joseph von Sternberg ou Scott Fitzgerald, noyé dans son alcool, ainsi qu’une kyrielle de producteurs, louches à divers degrés.
On se souviendra au passage du jeune Achab s’embarquant à dix-sept ans pour Londres dans l’espoir d’y jouer Shakespeare, et des circonstances qui présidèrent à la rencontre du librettiste Da Ponte avec Herman Melville, en 1838. On apprendra, in fine, la meilleure façon de réussir le cocktail Manhattan et avec quelle ténacité l’increvable Moby Dick cherche à se venger de son vengeur.
Achab (séquelles) received the Prix Wepler-Fondation La Poste 2015 and the Prix de la Page 111.
Here the reader finds the unknown and true story of the continuing adventures of Ahab, suposed dead captain of the Pequod who did in fact survive the final battle with the great white whale. We see how in 1910 he retreated with his wooden leg to Manhantan, how he hide himself by changing his name with new job, and how he tried to sell people his whale story – first as a Broadway musical and then as an Hollywood screenplay. Along this chaotic and funny way, we meet Cole Porter and his chorus girls, Cary Grant, Orson Welles, Joseph von Sternberg and Scott Fitzgerald, drowning in his cocktail, but also a lots of rotten producers.
Senges reminds us of the young Ahab – before his dramatical career on The Pequod – embarking at 17 to London in the hope of becoming a Shakespearean actor – with particular desire to play the rancorous Othello and Shylock –, and how Mozart’s librettist Da Ponte met Herman Melville on a bench in NY and changed his life forever. We also learn, ultimately, the best way to prepare a Manhattan cocktail and how tenaciously Moby Dick seeks revenge of his former avenger.
PRESS
“With Ahab (sequels), the whaling captain of Moby Dick escapes his destiny and survives by testing the world of entertainment, delirium, madness, illusion, pure fiction.” (L’Humanité – Alain Nicolas)
“Supverting the image of Moby Dick, Pierre Senges invents a prodigal sequel to Melville’s novel full of surprises and emotions. (…) The book redesigns the literature as a source of fever, chills, jokes and thrills.”
(Les inrockuptibles – Bruno Juffin)
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