Emmanuelle Lambert's Intimate Portrait of Alain Robbe-Grillet

Emmanuelle Lambert's book "Mon grand écrivain" offers a lucid, ironic, and respectful portrait of French novelist Alain Robbe-Grillet. Lambert, a scholar who worked with Robbe-Grillet's archives at the IMEC (Institut Mémoires de l'Édition Contemporaine), organized an exhibition and compiled texts about him. She spent considerable time with Robbe-Grillet in his later years before his death in February 2008. The book avoids hagiography, instead presenting a nuanced view that captures Robbe-Grillet's laughter, colorful sweaters, appetite, memory, work, and his indignation against stupidity and commitment to radical demystification. The possessive "mon" in the title is modest and non-hegemonic, giving space rather than imposing dogma. Lambert's approach combines critical distance with deep respect, resulting in what critic Patrick Kéchichian describes as a "just portrait full of malicious discernment." The work was reviewed in artpress in July 2009.