French finance minister publishes erotic novel; hilarity ensues

by cheblogudo

The Wall Street Journal reports:

Several explicit sex scenes in the new book by Le Maire, the French finance minister, have given the book a flush of attention and forced the government of President Emmanuel Macron to explain how one of its most senior members has time to write novels when people are struggling with high food and energy prices.

Let’s dig in, shall we?

On page 74, Julia, one of the novel’s main characters, peels off her shirt and throws herself on the bed in front of the protagonist. The prose veers into ribald and almost clinical terminology, landing somewhere between erotica and shoptalk at a proctologists’ convention.

After Le Maire answered a question from a far-right lawmaker in one recent parliamentary debate, the lawmaker said the minister’s answer wasn’t “dilatory,” referring to a line in that sex scene that incorporates dilation. That triggered laughter on the floor.

Cost of living aside, the main problem seems to be the quality of the work, something French readers do not compromise on:

“French people can forgive a politician for writing erotic novels, but they can’t forgive a politician for writing them badly,” said Alexandre Gefen, a literary critic and research professor for CNRS, France’s national research organization.