The Medici Prize was awarded this Thursday to Kevin Lambert for May our joy remain, once again consecrating this rising star of Quebec literature. His novel, published in France by Editions du Nouvel Attila, a year after its Canadian edition by Héliotrope, had nevertheless been the subject of controversy since the start of the school year. Not so much by its subject, the story of the fall of an architect suddenly accused of chasing the poor out of Montreal, as by the way in which he wrote it.
Editorial Minesweeper
On Instagram, French author Nicolas Mathieu, winner of the 2018 Goncourt for Their children after them, criticized Kevin Lambert for boasting of having used a “sensitive reader” (Chloé Savoie-Bernard) to revisit his manuscript, in order to avoid letting something slip through that would have been likely to turn against him on the social networks. An “editorial minesweeper”, as they say in the United States, where the practice, which contrasts with the artist’s freedom of expression, has apparently become frequent.
It is perhaps this controversy which contributed to the very rapid disqualification of Kevin Lambert in the race for Goncourt, even though he appeared in the first list. But that did not prevent the young author from receiving the December Prize around ten days ago, nor this Medici Prize, even more prestigious.
“Lucid, acidic, intelligent”
It must be said that beyond its literary qualities, this novel does not go with the back of the spoon in its biting way of attacking liberalism. “Lucid, acidic, intelligent, Kevin Lambert offers us an uncompromising portrait of our world, digs into our frustrations, reveals our ambitions and our cowardice,” our contributor Christian Dorsan highlighted in his column in August. May our joy remain is a current book, essential for understanding the world around us and its workings, a world not as caricatured as we would like to reinforce our convictions. »
Two authors won ex aequo the Medici Prize for Foreign Novels. The Portuguese Lidia Jorge for Misericordia (Métailié) and the South Korean Han Kang for Impossible goodbyes (Grasset). And the prize for the essay went to Laure Murat for Proust, family novel (Robert Laffont).