Irene Peran tells of her sister's murder – drama and correction

“A Crime of No Importance” is a short literary composition in which Irene Fran documents her sister’s murder and tells about it and the events surrounding it, more than a year after it, in order to get to the heart of the drama, share the difficult experience with the general public, and in the process return to human society. The calm after the storm.

Double mistake I was wrong

I have always seen this prolific writer as a model of success and luck. She is beautiful, elegant and impressive, knowledgeable, intellectual, feminist, energetic. Speaks fluently, gives lectures, travels around the world, happily married, a mother and grandmother. Her website is rich and fascinating.

Irene Fran, a bestselling author from the early 1980s who has never been seen again, found herself in a “horror zone,” as she describes the ordeal. My sense that Superwoman was immune to the ravages of fate did not stand the test of harsh reality. Murders in France are rare relative to the population, but Irene Fran found herself among the statistics affected.

I was wrong again and again. I was sure that a celebrity like Irene Fran, with means, connections and connections, could easily advance creeping cases, but her book “A Crime of No Importance” describes and states the opposite. Indifference, procrastination, silence – the struggle was unbearable, between black rage, white rage, rationalization, insomnia and encouragement. Irene Fran also fights here the war of all the unknowns who have been caught up in a criminal incident. She gives them a voice thanks to her talent and status as a well-known author. Relatives do not always meet with investigators, police officers and judges of good will.

Social drama and personal drama

The horrific crime, the murder of a 79-year-old woman, with hammer blows, in her home, in the middle of the day, is of no importance to the system, and to this day the criminal has not been found. The murder of elderly, anonymous women, according to the writer, is of no interest to anyone, not the relevant authorities, the police, the investigators, the judges, nor the general public.

Crimes against the elderly do not receive much attention unless they are sensationalized. The victim was not a millionaire and did not have a gigolo. Denise, the woman who was beaten with a hammer by a young burglar, lost a lot of blood and consciousness and died seven weeks after the attack, is the older sister of Irene Fran.

The silence of the system was joined by the silence of the family, which increased the difficulties of Iren's coping. The monstrous double silence was unbearable and the author, more naturally, found an outlet and a solution in writing the essay.

The attempt to investigate the murder, which occurred not long ago, also leads to an investigation that descends into the more distant past. Who was the murdered woman and what was her relationship with the writer? This is, therefore, also an autobiographical book in which Irene Fran reveals a little about herself and her life. Her eldest sister, Denise, 11 years older than her, was the hope of the poor family from Brittany . She was the one who brought books and records and Irene saw her as a surrogate mother.

The cover image shows little Irene, her hand gripping her sister’s arm, in a circular, unnatural motion, like a lifeline. The talented and brilliant Deniz was destined to be a teacher, escaping poverty and climbing the social ladder, like Irene after her, with the help of her academic success. “If it weren’t for my sister and father, my life path would have been, I am convinced, more difficult,” writes Irene. Deniz opened the way for her little sister and led her to literature.

But while Irene's trajectory was impeccable, something went wrong with Denise, taking the form of bipolar disorder that surfaced occasionally, for the first time when she was a student. It seemed that Denise had emerged from the crisis – moving into a much higher socio-professional category than her parents, marrying an engineer, buying a house, having two children, but the dormant mental illness still came out of the bottle in midlife and required hospitalization.

Denise's subsequent journey included divorce and joining an evangelical church, undoubtedly the results of the shock of the additional psychotic episode. But Denise, left alone at home on a path with no way out, nevertheless managed to lead a peaceful and good life as an active retiree in excellent health and a loving grandmother to her grandchildren.

All of this was interrupted by the break-in to the house, which was supposed to be a fortress, a safe haven: a violent attack at the age of 79 and the end of life seven weeks later. It should be noted that the late death prompted the system to determine in the case that it was a “natural death,” which was easier than getting rid of it that way, an absurd and outrageous procedure, of course. This was later corrected when the system finally admitted that Denise’s death was the result of the attack.

The Small Town on the Edge of Paris – A Sociological Perspective

When Irene Fran talks about her sister’s social rise through her studies, as well as the small town where the sister settled with her family – a sociological analysis of the birth of a settlement and its transformation over the years, I recognized a tone similar to that of the esteemed author Annie Ernaux. Denise’s neighborhood was a leap up the class ladder in the 1960s.

Brétigny-sur-Orge is the name of a small town 30 kilometers from Paris. The name is not mentioned in the book, but Irene mentioned it in interviews she gave after the publication of her book. It was still possible to buy milk and eggs on the surrounding farms. But since then, a “sensitive district,” a dirty word, built across the adjacent grove, along with a ring road, next to which is an industrial-commercial area, have turned the pastoral neighborhood into a place prone to disaster.

There have been 13 violent burglaries in Denise's neighborhood, two of which ended in murder. And always elderly women who the burglar thought were alone. Some were saved thanks to the presence of a son or the intervention of a neighbor. According to the newspaper articles I found online, the burglar, very violent, with a skull mask on his face, did not hesitate to use any means to steal jewelry.

Nothing was found in Denise's house except the victim's cellphone. The latter was discovered by one of her sons who, after not meeting her at the evangelical church on Sunday, rushed to her house. Denise was lying unconscious on the floor, swimming in her own blood. Chaos reigned in the house. The break-in had taken place the day before, on Saturday, at noon.

Shortly before the murder, a concerned and caring relative called Denise and urged her to sell the house on the dead-end street and buy an apartment in a building in the city center. That way, she wouldn't have to change her habits and would be safer. Two violent burglaries had already occurred in the neighborhood. Denise slammed the phone down on him...

One of Deniz's sons informed Eran about the drama seven weeks after it happened in a short email inviting her to the funeral. It has been 12 years since the relationship between Deniz and Eran was severed. Deniz's sons are avoiding their sister, their aunt Eran, who offers her help. Eran mistakenly thought that the horrific drama (Deniz was left lying alone for 24 hours, bleeding, unconscious) would overcome the boycott imposed on her by her family members. But the inhumanity that the state system shows towards its citizens is also revealed within the family itself.

Iren's family, instigated years ago by her mother, excluded her from the investigation and the shared mourning. On the way down, Iren discovers how her mother blamed her for Deniz's mental illness. Iren's career as a writer was not to her mother's liking, and her hatred for her daughter spilled over to the rest of the family and remained rooted even after the mother's death.

Iran had no access to her sister's murder case. The only way to know what was happening and, even more so, to have an impact was to independently hire the services of a lawyer. Iran hired, with no choice, one lawyer, a second lawyer, tried with all her might, despite and because of the stinging disregard, to advance the case, didn't sleep at night, didn't give up. Two years of terror in the life of the successful writer.

Correction with writing

It was not easy for Irene Fran to take up the pen of writers this time. It was impossible to talk about the murder and the pain. Irene refused to write, not only out of modesty and respect for the dead, but because of the literal impossibility. How can one express in words the inexpressible? But the accumulation of grief, rage, and despair prompted the writer to try to write about the murder and its consequences 14 months later. And isn't it, in addition, the writer's purpose to explore the dark?

With the help of writing, as always, Irene relieved herself this time too, after this personal drama. The little girl who secretly cut out from magazines, in the attic, female figures that resembled her older sister, whom she admired, a role model, managed to pull herself together thanks to writing. From a passive victim who struggled and struggled, Irene became the one in control of her own destiny, emerged from the feeling of a hated outcast and took for herself the right to join human society.

"You can't live as an outcast from your family," Irene sadly states. And if she is unable to be accepted into her family's narrow circle, despite all her efforts, the source of literature remains, addressed to the general public and seeking their support.

The power of the person holding the pen, who uses the power of words, thus influencing himself and his environment. From the inhumanity of the attack, of the attitude of the family and the system to the appropriation of humanity through the publication of the essay “A Crime of No Importance”. Iren sought to silence the ghost of her sister Denise, to make amends for the spilling of her blood and to re-enter the human tribe and was answered positively thanks to the responses of the readers: “Your book is human”. This is what Iren says in this video. This is one of the goals of literature, Iren concludes, to express humanity and read it through the eyes of others.

Literary evidence

“A literary story,” Iran defines the composition “A Crime of No Importance.” It is a poignant book of realistic testimony, but Iran is a writer and has also employed several literary tricks that amplify the message.

In describing Denise’s funeral at the beginning of the book, the author speaks of “a woman in a black and blue coat” who arrived with her partner and a young, fragile man, describing in detail her behavior, her hesitations, the confidence that returned to her, her reactions, her conversations with the attendees. Only later does the author discover that this woman was herself.

The book presents many dialogues in their original language. It is clear that the author did not change much from the way they were conducted in reality. A dialogue with the first lawyer, with her sister's psychiatrist from a long time ago, with a taxi driver, with the residents of the neighborhood where the sister lived. But one imaginary dialogue (more like a monologue) dominates the book – a conversation with the judge that was supposed to take place but did not. A literary trick but an authentic need of the victim's sister for the system to hear her, to listen to her. In this way, the author forces the judge not to shirk his duty. All victims deserve a listening ear and a fair trial.

“To those who don't listen. To those who have heard.” This is the dedication at the beginning of the book.

epilogue

A well-written, worthy, respectable, very powerful, sometimes blood-curdling pamphlet, written in a restrained and restrained style, fluent, without pathos. The essay serves here for all those who have been unfortunate enough to lose a relative under such circumstances. The essay is intended to make social amends and to make personal amends. The district attorney stated, in response to Irene's book, which won an important prize in France (Interlie), that the matter is being addressed and has never been neglected.

The prosecutor emphasized that a judge has been appointed in the case of the 13 burglaries in the neighborhood and an investigation is underway. There are cases, the prosecutor continued, that are not solved quickly. Indeed, the young burglar, who a neighbor fought with during one of the burglaries and gave details about his appearance and age, has not yet been caught.

The personal correction, on the other hand, was a great success. The epilogue in the form of a poem, in which the author connects her childhood in the shadow of her older sister to her life as an adult woman, brings the reader to brighter realms, and testifies to the correction (Iran objects to the word “therapy”) in the writing (in my translation, A.L.):

I am the girl.
The one who infects again
the stories
That fixes and connects them to each other
The worker hidden in the attic
The little rascal who takes it all
the rags
the tears
the worn-out ones
Moth-eaten
The plucked
That's all for me.
Even the holes and pieces
Even the smallest cuttings
Because there is always something good with them.
Even though it doesn't seem like it and then
I'm trying to recreate.
From
From
Corrective in conclusion
I am the little seamstress of the past.
The one who renovates them so they don't hear it
Secretly at home when I
Pulling out the needle
Not bad from the moment the stories
Corrected
I am from everywhere.
It corrects me as well as correcting the stories.
And up close to the sky
I never feel alone.
When I trample oblivion under the slate tiles of
The roof.

The optimistic Irene Fran believes in literature and its power to move mountains, to fight against the inhumanity of the individual and society. The writer, determined and calming, patches the holes of time, continues her enlightened path after two years of darkness and terror imposed on her by the evil that was embodied in her life in the form of a serial burglar who sowed death and destruction in a neighborhood of modest and peaceful retirement homes.

Hopefully, we will hear in the coming days that a just trial has finally been held and a fair trial has been served. However, it should be noted that Iran Faran does not seek revenge and has never been driven by negative forces. The author needs light and hope and continues to weave her work, book after book, with her characteristic determination and calm.

Irène Frain, Un crime sans importance, Éditions du Seuil, 2020
Inter-Allied Prize

Link to the book page on the publisher's website