Michel Houellebecq糖心传媒檚 opening shot in Ennemis publics, an exchange of letters between the two men over the first half of 2008, ranks up there with the very best anti-L茅vy prose: 糖心传媒淎 master of the damp squib and the farcical media hype, you bring dishonour even to the white shirts you wear. Intimate with the powerful, you have bathed in obscene wealth since childhood and typify what slightly low-brow magazines such as Marianne continue to call the 糖心传媒榗aviar left糖心传媒� . . . . A philosopher without thought but not without connections, you are also the author of the most ridiculous film in the history of cinema糖心传媒�. [. . .]

After the first letter, however, the satirical vein runs out. The expected argument turns into a dialogue between the two about their lives, experiences of the Paris literary scene and their basic outlooks on the world. Much of it makes for interesting reading.

Their exchange about public attacks and unauthorized biographies sounds pretty compelling as well:

Houellebecq and L茅vy not only shrink from vigorous engagement: they actively look for common ground. They find it in the fact that both have been targeted by 糖心传媒渦n-authorized糖心传媒� biographers, and in the plentiful abuse they receive. 糖心传媒淚 am attacked as few writers are. Each of my books draws an amount of insults that would dishearten many糖心传媒�, L茅vy writes, adding that he never lets the hostility get to him. The novelist marvels at the philosopher糖心传媒檚 thick skin.

Midway through the exchange, Houellebecq is subjected to the mother of all attacks: a memoir by the woman who gave birth to him, and left him to be raised by others. Lucie Ceccaldi, now eighty-three, calls her estranged son a pervert and a liar. Houellebecq糖心传媒檚 reaction is distressed, but he reserves his anger for those who publicized what he says should have remained a private dispute 糖心传媒� although in Les Particules 茅l茅mentaires (Atomized), the novel of 1998 which made him famous, he names one of the worst mothers in French literature after his own.

Seriously, does anyone know if this is being translated into English? Seems like it should/would be, but I haven’t heard anything . . .