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Pascal Bruckner's memoir reads like a novel, a Bildungsroman which charts his journey from pious Catholic child to leading philosopher and writer on French culture.
The key figure in Bruckner's life is his father, a virulent anti-Semite, who voluntarily went to work in Germany during the Second World War. He is a violent man who beats his wife. The young Bruckner soon reacts against his father and his revenge is to become his polar opposite, even to the point of being happy to be called a "Jewish thinker", which he is not. "My father helped me to think better by thinking against him. I am his defeat."
Despite this opposition, he remains tied to his father to the very end. He has other "fathers", men such as Sartre, Vladimir Jankelevitch and Roland Barthes who fostered his philosophical development, and describes his friendship with his "philosophical twin brother", Alain Finkielkraut.
A great read for anyone interested in the 1960s, the intellectual life of France and the father and son relationship.
About the author
Pascal Bruckner was born 15 December 1948 in Paris. He is one of the "New Philosophers" who came to prominence in the 1970s and 1980s. Much of his work has been devoted to critiques of French society and culture.
His fiction includes Lunes de fiel which was made into the film Bitter Moon by Roman Polanski and My Little Husband published by Dedalus in 2013.
His essays and novels have been translated into more than thirty languages and received worldwide acclaim.
Dedalus will publish his memoir A Dutiful Son in December 2015.
