Grégoire Bouillier's Radical Debut Novel 'Rapport sur moi'

Grégoire Bouillier's first novel, 'Rapport sur moi', published in 2002, is a radical literary work that blends autobiography with fiction. The book opens with the paradoxical line 'I had a happy childhood,' immediately unsettling the reader. Bouillier, who had previously contributed to art press and L'Infini, constructs a 'family novel' that unravels through a sharp literary consciousness informed by great texts. The narrative explores toxic and vital life experiences—love affairs, incest, crime, rape, illness—without narcissism. Bouillier argues that literature requires lived experience to be authentic, focusing not on spectacle of intimacy but on expression of interiority. He recounts an accumulation of pleasures and energy losses that ultimately forged him, stating, 'It took me several years to regain an appetite for living and recover freedom of thought and movement.' The novel employs a distinctive flashback technique integrated into the present tense. Bouillier avoids social and literary posturing, aiming to articulate an unspeakable truth where language wrestles with subject matter to exorcise an insoluble material. The review, written by Patrick Amine, appeared in art press in September 2002.