In Utero – Julien Blanc-Gras
Au Diable Vauvert – €15
“We’re in our thirties, live in north-east Paris, work for the cultural and media industries, which should be enough to pigeonhole us as bobo. We’re the children of provincial middle classes who’ve come to broaden their horizons in the capital. We arrived in Paris with no money and no network. We found our place in the city. We met each other. We moved in together. We’re having a baby.”
In Utero is JBG’s fifth book. A French writer as well as a journalist-reporter, the author has made a habit of writing about travel and adventure (from Gringoland in 2005 to Paradis avant liquidation in 2013). This book differs in that it is the pregnancy diary of a father-to-be. Not without a sense of humor, the author depicts the long prenatal journey, with its ubiquitous jargon, its big existential questions, its bag of anxieties, and its overflow of emotions…
“I become as light as he does when his gaze locks with mine. We are captivated by each other. Purity beyond compare. So it was true, this story of instant, unconditional love.
I know this fleeting euphoria. I know that this little ball of light heralds sleepless nights, frayed nerves, exhausting struggles and vomit down my neck. But this moment redeems everything in advance. This gaze suspends time, it abolishes the past and the future.”
The young father will have no trouble recognizing himself throughout the book, and will feel (at last) understood, but this subject, rarely broached in literature, will easily resonate with the greatest number of people (fathers, mothers, future parents…). For, as the author states, this is an intimate experience, but one with a universal and timeless scope.
Elisa Palmer
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