Synopsis
Like most of Emmanuel Bove's books, this novel - written in Compiègne - is a spark of everyday realities that describes a sulphurous humanity. Here, the characters all have failure in their veins. Farewell Fombonne (a novel originally published in 1937 by Gallimard) is governed by a cold humour, with metallic glow.
Bove Emmanuel - Farewell Fombonne: "In some aspects Farewell Fombonne, reminded me of the Black Blood of Louis Guilloux, beautiful sobriety of writing and this identical way of multiplying the characters." "Farewell Fombonne, published in 1937, is the novel by Emmanuel Bove, with Un soir chez Blutel, which was the least well received by critics of the time. ... but it's still Bove, and that's a lot. In any case, it has the peculiarity of being the only happy novel of the work. (Ouellet, F. (1994). Spotlight on Emmanuel Bove. Nuit blanche, literary magazine, (58), 64-65.)
A novel that is perhaps less pessimistic but whose human relations are hardly described in a very laughing light. Charles Digoin hero, or anti-hero Bovien, has little stature and shines by his passivity except for episodes of wandering. Juliet whose activism contrasts with Simone's measured understanding do not save our hope in humanity.
A prolific writer, revealed by Colette, Emmanuel Bove enjoyed success during his lifetime, before falling into oblivion and being rediscovered by Peter Handke in the 1980s. He was born in 1898 in Paris, but did part of his studies at Calvin College in Geneva, then lived in Vienna and again in Paris, where he died in 1945.
