Serge Joncour: L'Idole (2004)

The back cover of this book suggests something of a mixture of Woody Allen and Kafka, particularly as a homage to Kafka. I was reminded more of Emmanuel Carrère's La Moustache, apart from the gruesome ending of that book. Certainly madness is suggested throughout both La Moustache and L'Idole, although L'Idole, I was forced to conclude, is more of a 'what if' book, a hypothesis in which the idea of instant fame is investigated.

Georges Frangin is the hero, the man around whom everything centres, the man who is recognised every day by many people who greet him, ask him for his autograph, pay for his drinks, etc. Initially he thinks they must have mistaken him for someone else, although when he asks one of his 'admirers' for his name the reply is 'Georges Frangin', the supposedly unknown narrator.

Frangin doesn't do television very well, although he tries, and is at the beginning welcomed because of his 'fame'. But fame, of course, doesn't last.

My other Serge Joncour post:
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Serge Joncour: L'Écrivain national