Sudden death of French gadfly
RIPThe erudite critic and provocateur Benoît Duteurtre, presenter of Astonish Me, Benoit on France Musique died at his rural holiday home of a heart attack this week, aged 64.
An early groupie of Boulez, Stockhausen and Ligeti, he wrote an infleuntial 1995 essay, Requiem pour une avant-garde, and successfully sued Le Monde for calling him a revisionist. The following year he wrote a groundbreaking gay novel, Gaieté parisienne.. It was followed by Les malentendus, a novel about illegal immigants in France.
photo: Facebook/Duteurtre.com
This is a real shame. He was a talented author and also an expert on French operetta. If my memory serves me correctly he was also the grandson of René Coty, second and final president France’s Fourth Republic.
As a former militant smoker I enjoyed his impassioned defence of lighting up, ‘La petite fille et la cigarette’ being a humourous but insightful novel on how smokers were being pushed out of polite society. I packed in the habit years ago but maybe Benoît didn’t. RIP and thanks for your books, essays and radio programmes.
Controvertial man. The way he hated the Paris’s mayor (I don’t like at all) was over exagerated like his passion for Houellebecq who was sometimes ridiculous. I didn’t like his comments for the new year concert on french tv during 20 years. But he was a cultured man it’s indisputable and he should’nt have to die so early and by this way. Maybe he payed now what he did 30 years ago with his way of life.
Could you explain that last sentence?
I would presume that he’s referring to the fact that smoking tobacco leads to an increased risk of heart attack.
He will be missed. He certainly didn’t come across as a “provocateur” when he interviewed artists; more as an affectionate, well-informed nostalgic that was a great listener. His novels are often delightful and should all be translated into English. Have they been translated?
Not to my knowledge.
At least one novella, Customer Service, from Service Clientèle.
A great loss. Knowledge, wit, ideas. A conservative in woke times…a french spirit that french shchool is not making anymore for a long time. Light music lover, he would comment for french national tv the Vienna New Year s concert and knew what he was talking about… Thanks to slipper disc to mention his passing.