french writer Guillaume Musso (1974, Antibes) It dominated the sales rankings in France for more than a decade. More than 32 million copies of his crime and thriller books were sold worldwide last year. This status as a bestselling author has earned him some disdain from critics. Raymond Chandler Award recognized him as one of the current masters of the detective novel in 2021. After his latest work, ‘Angélique’, was published in Spanish in November, he gave this interview to Grupo Prensa Ibérica’s El Periódicode Catalunya at the Calmann-Lévy publishing house’s headquarters in Paris.
You have been France’s most read writer for over a decade.
This represents great pride for me.
But aren’t you paying a price for this? Some literary criticism belittles him because of his commercial success.
Maybe I pay a price for this, but I do it with great satisfaction. When I was young, I always dreamed of being like Stephen King, Marcel Pagnol or René Barjavel, not of winning the Goncourt or Renaudot prizes. I would be happy if they gave me an award, but my life does not depend on it. Popular and entertaining literature in no case does not mean that it is not demanding. Many writers have proven this, and I was very happy when Pierre Lemaître won the Goncourt in 2013 or Jean-Baptiste Andréa this year.
He has published more than 20 novels. How do you get inspired?
The only principle I have followed for 20 years is to write the novel I want to read. First I tell the story to myself. I want to embody a dual role: writer and reader at the same time, and going from one to the other. I also always try to do a two-level reading in my novels. On the one hand, I want them to be a pleasure to read, to create tension and to have a ‘page-turning’ mentality (the desire to turn pages one after another). On the other hand, I want to touch upon a deeper issue. I aim to reconcile the pleasure of reading with reflection.
What did you mean in the example of ‘Angélique’?
I wanted to talk about a character driven by a deep sense of disappointment and resentment and see how this could lead him to commit a crime. Resentment is a very present emotion in France and other European countries right now. Sometimes this is a positive disappointment because it helps the person move forward in life. But it can also be a negative frustration that promotes obsessive thoughts and depressive and bitter behavior.
And this is a feeling that can offer many plays on a literary level…
Yes definitely. When creating a story, it’s interesting to have characters motivated by anger. When a person thinks that he is not where he deserves and deserves better, it contributes to him breaking the rules and becoming an active and motor character. This is what happens in the case of Angélique, the nurse in the novel.
most of it of your book They were set in the United States, but in the case of ‘Angélique’ the story takes place in Paris. What is it about the French capital that interests you on a literary level?
I was born and raised in Antibes (on the Côte d’Azur), but I live in Paris for love, because my wife is Parisian and works in the capital. Since I live in the city, I tried to describe it honestly, not like a postcard Paris like in Woody Allen’s movies or TV series. Emily in Paris. My novel also reveals a fascinating but ambivalent city that Parisians love less and less.
In fact, it honestly describes the Paris of the pandemic years.
As a writer, I have always seen the novel as a mirror of society and people. I write contemporary books that are relevant to their time. In the case of ‘Angélique’, I did this at a time (late 2020 and 2021) where there was no strict quarantine but a nightly curfew (starting at six in the afternoon). I wanted the contradictions of France during the epidemic period to be revealed in the novel. It was a cold and strange Parisian theatre, undoubtedly an interesting setting for a writer. Post-traumatic was a time when mindsets changed. Many people are drawn to conspiracy theories and advocate things that they did not believe in a few years ago.
What are your literary references?
On the one hand, Patricia Highsmith. I always admired that writer. They published their personal diaries a few years ago and I find their mental makeup fascinating. He was always sure that he was writing for others, and he paid great attention to the ambiguity of his characters, their mental complexity that causes them to break rules and cross boundaries. On the other hand, a very important writer is George Simenon. As the author of the Inspector Maigret series argues, I do not judge my characters. I try to understand them, but I don’t make moral judgments about them.
Another reference is director Alfred Hitchcock…
Yes, there is a clear Hitchcock influence in ‘Angelique’. This is noticed by the voyeuristic aspect and character of the young cow looking from the window of her room. I also love Hitchcock’s films and his ability to combine suspense with a playful nature. The British filmmaker argued that some oases of humor should be preserved, and I try to do the same in my novel. Moreover, he always made his films with the audience in mind, not to create his own legend.
Literary criticism often distinguishes between ‘storytellers’ (writers of entertaining and accessible stories) and high literature. Do you also share this distinction?
No, I have never understood this desire to classify and give oneself the right to say what literature is. It has always seemed pretentious and condescending to writers and readers. I’m not interested in all these categories. I’m trying to write hybrid novels that can’t really be placed in one movement or one genre.
He publishes a new book almost every year. Why does it have this production rate?
I don’t like being sedentary and I want my children to see me go to work every day. I want to show you that the art profession is not synonymous with lack of rigor. Every morning I take them to school, then I go to the publishing house, where I work until lunch, and in the afternoon I write in another office. I like to have a structured life and it is hard for me to hit the “off” button. As Murakami puts it in his book ‘What I Talk About When I Talk About Writing’, the hard part is to publish not one or two novels, but 15 or 20 novels. So writing has taken over my life.
He will publish his 22nd novel in France at the beginning of next year. Can you tell us about it?
The story will begin on the Lérins Islands in Cannes. I can’t tell you anything else.