The Night of the illusionist Daniel Kehlman, translated from German ( Beerholms Vorstellung ) by Juliette Aubert, Editions Actes Sud, 2010 (original issue date of 1997, but the author has completely revised in 2007) In this first novel by the young prodigy Germano-Austrian Kehlman Daniel (born in 1975 and already nine novels and essays, translated into French 4), we follow the story of Arthur Beerholm young man who will devote himself to magic.
of children adopted young orphan about to become a priest, the unusual fate of Arthur is told us by himself, in what seems a confession written in a hurry. We will learn how
and Arthur became a magician, his debut with a deck of cards up his courses taken with his master Jan Van Rode, his discouragement to full control and complete assurance.
Arthur is such a master of magic (or should I say the illusion) that the story itself seems to be a real sleight of hand, transgressing the barrier between fiction and reality repeatedly .
"Certainty does not exist. Never. And even less for the magicians. "Himself reached such a peak in his art that comes to interact with reality, unless it is a dream, or the madness that has been reached. For how to stay healthy when you can distort reality in this way? When you have a vision of life completely metaphysics? How not to be mistaken for a madman when addressing Vivianne, a fairy created by Merlin the Magician? Vivianne Unless there really? All these issues through our minds as they go through the mathematical mind of Arthur. Mathematics to which Arthur refers often giving them a major role, almost sacred ...
"Believe me, there is little reason to apply more nightmares than discovering hidden in the heart of mathematics, the germ of madness. Or that of revelation. "If I had been disappointed by Surveyors the world, about ambitious and yet terribly attractive to me, it was fun. Its brevity and its original subject are not for nothing. Style, one feels, is worked (not surprising when you learn that the author has completely revised his book 10 years after writing), and I am quite shocked to read that I did not like just style Measuring the World (actually, I could not remember not having loved him!).
However, the progression of the story of Arthur in the Night of the illusionist is quite chaotic, the ideal is probably to read the book all at once so as not to lose too. This emphasizes once again the urgency of this narrative, the need to tell or explain something difficult to grasp, as an illusion after all ...
In writing this book, I listen Vulgaires Machins , Requiem for the Deaf (India Records, 2010)
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