Louis Calaferte's Final Notebook: 'Le Jardin Fermé' Published

Gallimard and L'Arpenteur have published 'Le Jardin Fermé – Carnet XVI', the 16th and final notebook of French writer Louis Calaferte, covering the months leading up to his death on April 19, 1994. The notebook documents his struggle with severe pain, which he describes as a 'vice' gripping his body, and his refusal of morphine to preserve lucidity for writing. Calaferte views writing as a weapon against illness, aiming to align his work with life's absolute. He rejects style as calculation, seeking a form born from bodily exigency. The notebook includes reflections on God, suicide, and his wife G., as well as references to Pascal, Heidegger, Gide, Bataille, and Kafka. Calaferte considers his journals his highest literary achievement, surpassing his fiction. The final entry reads: 'I was certain that being dead is entering into the luminous flesh of God.' The publication coincides with the release of his novel 'Septentrion', whose first line ('In the beginning was Sex') echoes the journal's closing.