Thold on tight: they’re back. The phantasmagorical Malaussène tribe – seven children born from the same mother with different fathers, their children and grandchildren, plus a multitude of friends – reappear in Malaussène terminusthe latest installment of the saga. Forty years ago, Daniel Pennac began work on his first novel, Orc Paradisereleased in 1985. After seven volumes, over five million copies sold and a worldwide successthe French writer he decided to retire his creatures not without a grand finale worthy of them.
Among the best known French writers, Daniel Pennac was for a long time a professor of literature in a Parisian high school. In the Malaussène cycle, which began in 1985 with The Paradise of the Ogres, he grafts a gallery of bizarre characters and explosive humor onto the structure of the detective story. (Photo: Sebastien Calvet Rea Contrasto)
Malaussène terminus
In Malaussène terminus we find The Mother who has now become a grandmother, Benjamin Malaussène who works for a publishing house and is increasingly the patriarch of the clan, and the cousins Sigma, Maracuja and È Un Angelo in the middle of the mess they had set up in the previous book. The three young men had planned a fake kidnapping against Georges Lapietà and his son Iuc, with the complicity of the latter who is also Mara’s boyfriend. The goal was to create an art installation. But the story gets out of hand when a dangerous gang intervenes and really kidnaps the two Lapietas.
At the head of the gang is a mysterious character who calls himself Nonnino, who has a soft spot for the gratin dauphinois, signs his crimes with a stocking and counts on an army of loyalists. The daring story involves the magistrate Talvern, alias Verdun sister of Benjamin, a shady trafficking of children and a book written by the novelist Alceste.
For those who have followed the Malaussène since their origins, the ending is an authentic epiphany, which sheds new light on the mystery of this dysfunctional and bizarre family. As Athena was born from the head of Zeus, so this kaleidoscope of characters was born from the imagination of Daniel Pennac, retired literature teacher, playwright, comic book writer, essayist and prolific novelist.
How do you explain the resounding success of this saga?
As a journalist wrote a few weeks ago on Le Monde, I think it is related to the feeling of closeness that the reader experiences with the Malaussènes. This book is the most oral of all, it is made up of inner dialogues and monologues: it gives the reader the sensation of speaking with the author and the characters, and this could be a second explanation.
Malaussène terminus by Daniel Pennac, Feltrinelli400 pages, 22 euros.
You once said that the Malaussène were born out of a challenge… Is that true?
Yes. The writer Jean-Bernard Pouy made me read his 15 favorite authors of noir literature, telling me that I could not write such a novel. “You’ll see,” I replied. As for Benjamin and his job of scapegoating, I had read a book by the philosopher René Girard, where it is argued that all human groups are formed around someone who is rejected because he has defects. A phenomenon present everywhere, from the family to school or work. So I imagined a professional scapegoat. In the 80s all noir heroes were lone cops, so I chose to do the opposite, surrounding Benjamin with a tribe.
The last book of the saga is from 2017, in the meantime he has written other books. What was it like returning after six years to the Malaussène?
It’s a matter of appetite, like when you crave different dishes at the table. I wanted to rediscover the Malaussène style, a writing different from The law of the dreamer (2020) or from My brother (2018).
Key character of Malaussène terminus it’s Nonnino, the gang leader who poses as a teacher with his boys. Any connection with his work?
He is the professor of evil: he teaches murder, lies, forgery. He demands loyalty to the group and the renunciation of any previous identity. From an ethical point of view, he is everything that I have not been. Grandpa is a corrupter. A true professor awakens consciences, he does not exercise power over his students, he is in the classroom to give them the desire to free themselves from ignorance by accessing his knowledge of him.
Nonnino takes it out on the industrialists who believe their success is eternal, they relocate and then fire the workers. Why exactly is he making this speech?
Nonnino is a lucid and intelligent assassin. In life he has done everything, as long as he earned him money. This discourse is functional in recruiting the boys, for him they are gangsters.
In this book, there are lies and fake news, football corruption and child trafficking, even drugs used to eliminate the elderly in nursing homes. It tells us about a world full of wickedness.
In recent years we have seen real criminals democratically accessing power and rigged constitutions to keep presidents in power. Social media is used to make someone a scapegoat. And the denunciation, even if made with unquestionable moral conviction, generates a repulsive little satisfaction. This is the world we live in.
She lives in Belleville, like the Malaussènes. Was this neighborhood inspiring?
Yes. I’ve lived there since 1969, when he was still a worker. Today it is a multi-ethnic, varied place, with small artisan workshops.
With Malaussène terminus there will be the orphans of the saga. What would you say to comfort them?
The author is not dead. “Continue”, as you write at the end of the episode.
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