Pierre Bergé (1930–2017), who was born in Saint Pierre d'Oléron and died in Saint-Rémy-de-Provence, is perhaps best known as the partner of Yves Saint Laurent, whom he doesn't include in this book, although he does include many other people he knew.
He begins with an aphorism by Jean Cocteau, that whether we paint a landscape or a still life, what we are in effect painting is a portrait of ourselves. This in a sense is Bergé's excuse, if any were needed, to display to the reader his relationships with the many people included in this book.
At the age of fifteen, Bergé read Céline's Voyage au bout de la nuit and discovered the nature of literature, how words spurt, and how to spit in the face of the world. He notes that Céline called Henry Miller one of his 'plagiarists', although to Bergé Miller was a kind of pupil. At eighteen, Bergé began to live with the slightly older Bernard Buffet for eight years.
Bergé splits this book into two sections: the main people he knew, and those of whom he has less to say. Of the main people not mentioned above are: Jean Giono, François Mitterrand, Marie-Laure de Noialles, Louise de Vilmorin, Louis Aragon (who during a restaurant meal wonders if the waiter 'sucks well'), Chanel and Schiaparelli, Lili Brik and Tatiana Yakovleva. The smaller accounts of known people are: Garry Davis, Pierre Mac Orlan and Francis Carco, Marguerite Duras, the Rostands (Maurice and Rosemonde), Diana Vreeland, Rudophe Nureev, Danielle Cattand, Andy Warhol, Robert Mapplethorpe, Jean-Louis Barrault and Madelaine Renaud.
This is a gem.
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