''Les Bêtises'' (''"The stupid things"'') is a 1971 novel by the French writer

Jacques Laurent Jacques Laurent or Jacques Laurent-Cély (6 January 1919 – 28 December 2000) was a French writer and journalist. He was born in Paris, the son of a barrister. During World War II, he fought with the Algerian Tirailleurs. Laurent was elect ...

. It recounts 47 years in the life of an adventurous and well-travelled man, in the forms of his own notes, diary entries, an unfinished novel and comments, collected by a friend after the man's death. Laurent wrote the novel over a period of 22 years.

Reception

The novel received the

Prix Goncourt The Prix Goncourt (french: Le prix Goncourt, , ''The Goncourt Prize'') is a prize in French literature, given by the académie Goncourt to the author of "the best and most imaginative prose work of the year". The prize carries a symbolic reward o ...

, with five votes against four in the sixth voting round. It was also the first choice for the

Prix Renaudot The Prix Théophraste-Renaudot or Prix Renaudot () is a French literary award. History The prize was created in 1926 by ten art critics awaiting the results of deliberation of the jury of the Prix Goncourt. While not officially related to the ...

, but the Renaudot can never go to the same book as the Goncourt, so the award went to the jury's second choice, ''Le Sac du palais d'été'' by

Pierre-Jean Rémy Pierre-Jean Rémy is the pen-name of Jean-Pierre Angremy (21 March 1937 – 28 April 2010) who was a French diplomat, novelist, and essayist. He was elected to the Académie française on 16 June 1988, and won the 1986 Grand Prix du roman de l'Ac ...

. Although there are no political themes in ''Les Bêtises'', the Goncourt jury's decision proved controversial within the leftist press due to Laurent's right-wing sympathies, and journalists complained that there were no working-class people in the novel.

References

External links

Publicity page
at the publisher's website 1971 French novels French-language novels Prix Goncourt winning works Éditions Grasset books Novels by Jacques Laurent {{Europe-novel-stub