Catherine Fancol, French success 

A new novel by the successful French author Katherine Pancol is currently being released , an 850-page volume weighing more than a kilo (1100 grams), titled “Three Kisses.” Huge advertisements with the front cover image, similar to those of the author’s two previous trilogies, with Pancol herself smiling at the audience, adorn metro and bus stations across France. Katherine Pancol is a safe investment, a product with receipts.

Fancole's fans are already lining up to buy the new baby. For me, reading "The Yellow Eyes of Crocodiles," the first in the first trilogy, is enough. I'll settle for that. Too bad. Fancole is a unique phenomenon in French literature, a journalist and writer, a hilarious and entertaining feminist, the queen of bestsellers à la française. Her first novel, "First Me," inspired by autobiography, was published when she was 25 and was a great success, selling three hundred thousand copies. Fancole was a journalist at the time, and one of the editors at the publishing house, Robert Lafon, recognized the potential in her writing and suggested that she produce a novel. Fancole initially refused, but in the end, she wrote "First Me," and success shone on her first attempt.

The yellow eyes of crocodiles

Fancole continued to publish and sell well, but the scale changed drastically in 2006 with the publication of the novel “The Yellow Eyes of Crocodiles.” Six and a half million copies worldwide, translations into more than thirty languages, awards in France, Germany and Russia, a film starring Julie Depardieu and Emmanuelle Béarn. And the two sequels did not shame the first, in terms of commercial success.

I have just finished, with great difficulty, reading “The Yellow Eyes of the Crocodiles.” A formulaic, commercial bestseller, with all the spices that should be in it. Anyone can identify with the heroine, Josephine, a shy and modest mother and wife, who does not know how to stand up for herself and is trampled on by those around her, especially by her arrogant sister. And here, the sympathetic Josephine, to some extent akin to Pancol, gains confidence and gains international recognition thanks to a long and learned novel she wrote. Our Josephine is an expert on the Middle Ages, a bookworm, who spends time in libraries and writes at her kitchen table.

And here, contrary to expectations, she suddenly wins, enjoys media and financial success, and anyone can dream that this miracle will happen to them too. Anyone can also hate Iris, her snobbish, swindling, manipulative sister, who ultimately does not emerge victorious. In the next sequel, she even passes away, eliminated by a serial killer, and Josephine inherits her husband, Philippe, who becomes her lover. Yes, Josephine moves in with her deceased sister's husband.

Everyone can also enjoy the cultural fare sprinkled here and there in the form of lectures and spicy stories rooted in the Middle Ages. And the sex scenes are not out of place, here they are horribly vulgar, written in terribly outdated slang, appropriate for the age of the participants and their social background – Josephine's stepfather (a Jew) and his secretary (from the provinces), who was raped by her grandfather as a child but rises to the rank of the boss's wife and mother of his son, and there saccharine sentimentality, when it comes to Josephine and her beautiful and romantic lover, who has a model twin brother, completely different from him. Well, well, the motif of rival brothers is exploited to the fullest. Josephine's two daughters also recreate the model of an artist and their aunt. Nella Larsen's book, "Crossing the Line," which in my opinion is a masterpiece, is also built on the difference between two women, childhood friends, who are similar to Josephine and her sister. One is insecure, driven and trampled, suffering from feelings of inferiority compared to her "friend," and the other is mocking, exploitative and manipulative, but what a gaping abyss there is between the two works, in terms of the quality of the writing. Here is a masterpiece, "Crossing the Line," and there is a flight book, "The Yellow Eyes of the Crocodiles."

Catherine Pancol's assembly line operates efficiently even though the garment is crudely sewn. I must admit, although I had the feeling of wasting time while reading, that not everyone can produce something like this... I didn't like the book just as I don't like the books of Guillaume Musso and Marc Levy. But this is my personal taste and I certainly understand the fans of the writers from the aforementioned group of successful ones. They have every right to. It should be noted that the film produced from "The Yellow Eyes of Crocodiles" I actually did like and watched with great interest. The numerous folds of fat, which were removed in the transition from paper to fabric, were well drawn.

And more. I admire Catherine Fancole. Not her books, you already understood that, although I recognize her talent for producing such grandiose productions. But her ability to succeed in a devastating way and at the same time remain balanced and modest. And enjoy life. And whistle one long whistle at the literary critics who kill her works. The Parisian elite wrinkle their noses in disgust, so what, Fancole walks the beaches of Normandy with her beloved dog and breathes fresh air. “Le Monde” wrote: “The Yellow Eyes of Crocodiles,” quickly read, quickly forgotten.” François Bonnell, host of the popular literature program on France 5, “Le Grand Library,” categorically refuses to invite her. “She doesn’t need me to sell books, and when she does appear on television, her words are pathetic.” Fancol herself refuses to come to Laurent Roquier’s popular talk show on France 2. “There’s no point in coming to a program where I’m sure they’ll smash me to pieces.” Fancol knows very well which programs to go to and which to avoid.

Indeed, not French culture at its best, to say the least, but who cares. Millions enjoy Pancol's works, read avidly, drool over the pages, and the bank account of the author and the publisher is growing, reaching legendary proportions. And the publishers that translate her around the world also profit from the business. They cannot be accused of wanting to make money, especially since the profits generated from Pancol can be used to publish other books. Pancol creates wealth and employment.

The cheerful star lives in the affluent Neuilly district, often spends time at her country house in Normandy, near the city of Pecan, and travels to Rome, New York, Texas, Bolivia, Cuba, and wherever else. The president of Iceland invited her, out of curiosity, to toast the life of the heroine of “The Yellow Eyes of the Crocodiles,” Josephine! Jo! And the first fan emails about the book came from three men, so don’t think that her readership is exclusively female (60 percent women but 40 percent men)! And the three American fans wrote to her in unison: “Josephine is me!” Very positive points. In short, I would like to be Catherine Pancol. Maybe in the next incarnation.

Many of the female writers of Pancol's generation, now just over sixty, who began their careers writing novels, were at best sidelined, at worst almost completely forgotten. Or, not a bad solution, they underwent a professional retraining to write biographies, an attempt, often successful, to continue to exist and stay in the headlines. The worst of all happened to Muriel Cerf, the slender, beautiful and arrogant celebrity, the envy of the girls of her generation, who began her successful career with Catherine Pancol, rose to the peaks and fell to the abysses, was no longer invited to the media, was forgotten by the reading public, was hit by a car, married a bad man and died, in 2012, at the age of 61, abandoned and forgotten, of cancer, in a small town near Paris . Gone are the days when she would appear on Bernard Pivo's popular literary television show, "Apostrophe," recounting her travels in the Far East and her adventurous and exotic loves that formed the backdrop for her thick volumes.

But not Catherine Fancole, who, incidentally, was one of the few who saluted Mireille Serre when she passed away in a thin silence. The giggly Fancole has been a fixture on the bestseller list since “The Yellow Eyes of Crocodiles,” book after book, sometimes selling more copies than Anna Gabalda, Guillaume Musso, and Marc Levy (that was the case, at least, in the first trimester of 2010). In 2012, she was awarded the title of Officer of the Order of Arts and Letters at the Elysee Palace by the President of France. Who is the woman behind this phenomenal success, which has lasted longer than anyone could have imagined?

Very nice, very warm-hearted, looks great and doesn’t take herself seriously. Or is it just a pretense… How can you not take yourself seriously when you’re famous all over the world? Catherine Fancole can do anything. In an interview with TV host Anne-Elisabeth Lemoine, on a popular program on France 5 to celebrate the release of her new novel, “Three Kisses,” Fancole stated that if her books suddenly stopped selling and her success diminished, she wouldn’t care one bit. And by the way, her favorite book of all her works is actually the one that sold the least.

The Love of Roman Gary

In 1974, Catherine was a young journalist, 20 years old, and she had a small, ugly dog ​​named Kid. One day, she went out to buy cigarettes in the 6th arrondissement where she lived at the time, and left the dog outside. When she left the tobacco bar with a pack of cigarettes in her hand, she saw someone talking to the dog. His back was to her and she heard him say: “What a beautiful dog you are…” When she turned around, Catherine saw that it was… Roman Gary! The legendary writer who accompanied her childhood was already 60 years old (Pencol’s age today) and invited her for coffee. Coincidentally, they both lived on the same street and since that meeting they had not been apart for two years. A romantic relationship that Catherine Pencol defines as the combination of two lonelinesses that discovered each other. Catherine’s mother and brother had moved to the US and her father had disappeared from the horizon. Catherine was alone in the capital and was happy to meet Gary.

The famous writer, for his part, introduced her to his son, Diego, his secretary, Martin, together they visited Jean Seberg at Christmas, Jean who was no longer feeling so well, together, Roman and Catherine, bought cheeses at Barthélemy, ate caviar and drank vodka at Dominique's on Rue Brea, went to the movies, traveled to Venice in a sleeping car, first class... Roman told her about his mother, his childhood, his books, it was a different time, it was a different life. To this day, Catherine keeps a shirt that Roman Gary gave her as a gift, along with twenty others, sewn especially for him in Barcelona, ​​with the initials of the writer's name in place of a heart. Catherine also keeps a copy of his book that he gave her with the following dedication: "To Catherine Pancol who entered my life and who will never leave it!" After two years, Roman declared his love for Catherine, but she was not as in love as he was and the relationship ended.

Other milestones in the star's life

Catherine Fancol was born in 1954 in Casablanca, Morocco, to an engineer father and a teacher mother. When she was 5 years old, her parents moved to Paris and later divorced. Catherine suffered greatly from the separation. She does not like to talk about her childhood and adolescence, especially since her mother is still alive and she does not want to hurt her. Let's not forget the evil, calculating and emotionless master of Josephine and Iris, from the novel "The Yellow Eyes of Crocodiles", who, in any case, in my opinion, was built on the model of Fancol's mother's character in real life. It is therefore possible to understand the wounds of the author's childhood and adulthood and appreciate the way in which she recovered. Catherine still hides behind her characters, but it is very possible that a day will come when she will directly reveal the truth. And in the meantime, despite her indirect path, her writing serves as therapy for her. And not only for her, but also for her readers.

Even as a child, she loved to tell stories and would captivate her brothers and cousins ​​on summer evenings at her grandmother's, when she invented Sophie's adventures for them. Little Catherine devoured books (among them "Without Family" by Hector Melo), which were a consolation for her parents' lack of love and loneliness. The 8-year-old girl borrowed books from the public library starting with the letter a, and when she reached the letter b, she found the ultimate model and dreamed of writing like Balzac.

Catherine Fancole was an excellent student and completed a doctorate in modern French literature at the University of Nanterre. From 1970 to 1972, she taught French and Latin at a school in Lausanne, Switzerland. When she returned to Paris, she began working as a journalist for Cosmopolitan and Free Match. In 1979, her first novel, “First Me,” was published, and its success changed her life. Fancole received dizzying commercial offers, from shampoo with her name on it to private jets, and what not. In order not to overdo it, Fancole flew to New York. She lived in the big city that appears in her books for 8 years, studied at a writing workshop at Columbia University, gained life experience, wrote her second novel, “The Barbarian,” and then a third and fourth novel. “The Barbarian,” by the way, was adapted into a film by Pancol’s good friend, Mireille Darc (1989), but it was neither well-received nor very successful. Well, who cares. Pancol and Darc did not stop the race, and rightly so, because of such trifles. Mireille Darc directed the film in Tunisia and would return to Paris on weekends to feed her then-partner, who was dying of hereditary liver cancer. Pancol and Darc, who both suffered from parental neglect in their childhood, rose to prominence on their own in adulthood, and achieved popular success and audience love, adequate compensation. The two were friends in heart and soul, and since Mireille Darc’s death, Catherine Pancol continues to speak to her image in the kitchen.

At the same time, Fancole had an 8-year relationship with television and radio personality Pierre Lascor and published articles in the newspapers “Le Journal du Dimanche”, “Free Match” and “El”. In this context, she interviewed personalities and celebrities from various fields, such as Ronald Reagan, Jacques Chirac, Johnny Hallyday and Louise Brooks. After separating from Pierre Lascor (who was later the partner of another Catherine, Catherine Deneuve), she married a Frenchman from New York and gave birth to two children, a son and a daughter, Charlotte and Clément, who are now approaching thirty. Charlotte is the one who wrote the screenplay for the film adaptation of “The Yellow Eyes of Crocodiles”.

After her divorce, she returned to Paris in 1991 so that her children could grow up in her homeland. They now live in London but are fluent in French thanks to their Parisian childhood. In the meantime, she managed to get divorced, remarry, and also divorce her second husband. At the same time, she continued to publish novel after novel, but only after ten of them did she achieve a huge victory. In 2006, as mentioned, the second turning point in her life occurred when “The Yellow Eyes of Crocodiles” was published, which brought her audience, in the wake of the Ipouria, two more sequels, “The Slow Waltz of the Turtles” and “The Squirrels in Central Park Are Sad on Mondays.” The latter sold even more than the 2010 Goncourt Prize winner, Michel Houellebecq’s “The Map and the Territory.” Author Patrick Besson suggested the following titles for Pancol's book, including: "Green Beans Don't Cook Themselves in a Pot," "The Neighbor's Black Dog Barked Three Times," "White Snakes Never Take a Siesta," and "The Mexican Parrot Suffers from Parkinson's."

Catherine herself is convinced that she is “a very good writer.” A writer is like a composer, she claims. There are those who like the music of Bach or Chopin and do not like the music of Wagner or Mozart. And she has other explanations as well. She is a woman, she is blonde, she is not an intellectual, and in addition, in France most literary critics are also writers themselves, and their irritation, given her phenomenal success, causes them to write bad reviews about her. There is no doubt that Fencol arouses anger, rage and envy from those who are called “real writers,” but these negative feelings are not the only reason for her murder. It is permissible to think that Fencol is not a good writer. No one has to admire her books just as everyone has the right to admire them, love them, buy them and read them.

Muchaches

After the trilogy with the crocodiles, turtles and squirrels, Pancol swore that she would never return to Josephine's family again, but nevertheless she could not help but continue to follow her in her next trilogy, “Muchaches” while adding other characters. Fantasy and reality are closely intertwined in Pancol, holding each other, feeding each other, to the point of confusion. One day she was asked to name her son's teachers and instead, she cited the names of the teachers of Zoe, Josephine's daughter, one of the heroines of “The Crocodiles.”

The starting point of the “Muchaches” trilogy is also anchored in her life. One day, in the summer of 2010, Pancol was sitting in a cafe near the city of Lourdes, before leaving for a wedding to which she had been invited (6). In the cafe, she witnessed a disturbing scene. A pregnant woman, as beautiful as Brigitte Bardot in Godard’s “Contempt,” two small children, a father. Suddenly, the husband slapped the astonished woman, whose head fell back and hit a post. The children were frightened, “Why, what did Mom do?” The woman smoothed her hair, stood up without saying a word, and walked toward the bathroom. Catherine ran after her to help and give her her cell phone number, but the husband threatened and shouted: “If you say even one word to my wife, I will kill her.” Catherine was shocked. The creative process began. Who is the woman, why is she not rebelling? Life sent Catherine a signal. Her mission is to write their stories. The human comedy that sometimes turns into tragedy.

“Muchaches,” which deals largely with the abuse of women by their partners and children by their fathers, was written by Pancol for this woman (whom she was unable to locate later, despite her efforts), in the hope that she would read it. The trilogy was at the top of the bestseller list for a long time, but critics, as usual, criticized it. Hollow characters with two character traits, endless repetition, the complete implausibility of the plot, demagogy on a dime, ridiculous style, pathetic clichés, heroines who are looking for success, love and money. Needless to say, all of this was already felt, in my opinion, in “The Yellow Eyes of Crocodiles.” But in proverbs and sayings, an ancient wise teacher says: you don’t argue with success. And that’s it. After the book was published, Pancol met with about 30 battered women and is working to eradicate the phenomenon, in France and around the world. It’s impossible not to admire the personality and work of the star.

Intimate connection with the readership

https://youtu.be/aDm7gJo93YY

Catherine Fancole is a social phenomenon. Her readers form a kind of family, a community, and follow her website and personal blog where she informs them about her experiences, her travels abroad, dinners with great people of the nation and the world (such as Frederic and Jean-Gabriel Mitterrand, François' nephews, television personalities Thierry Ardisson and Herve Bourgeois, the former model and current businesswoman, Ines de la Presage, the statesman and diplomat Boutros Boutros Raly, who has since passed away, and more), her wanderings on the beaches of Normandy, the death of her beloved dog, what the new dog eats, the progress of her writing, the faulty Internet in the lonely house in Normandy and the technician who didn't fix it properly. One hundred thousand hits a day. Fancole loves people and is interested in them, there is not a taxi driver who drives her who doesn't tell her the story of his life. And the people's stories, which she collects, feed not only her connection with them but also the plots of her books, of course.

In times of drought, Catherine receives 30, 40 emails a day, and during new book launches the number rises to 150. The excited writers tell her how her books have changed their lives. They see her as a friend, and she responds to each of the email writers personally. Pancol and her readers form one family, Pancol and her heroes form a second family, and all together they form a community. Pancol, cordial, warm, and humble, meets with her readers, talks to them at eye level, and sings their hearts and lives.

And more. Catherine Fancole regularly invites her readers to her country house in Normandy, over a bottle of good wine, for reading sessions of the manuscript of the book in progress. Fans get acquainted with the content and express their opinions. Conversations, jokes, light intoxication, the cheerful Fancole loves to share and participate.

Three kisses

You don’t have to be a great prophet to know that “Three Kisses,” a remake of the winning formula a la Catherine Fancole, will also jump to the top of the bestseller list. In an interview with journalist and author Valerie Trierweiler, François Hollande’s ex-partner, Fancole talks about the birth of the new baby (6). The “Muchaches” trilogy is about fifteen hundred pages long, but not all the characters have said the last word. Fancole received emails from readers who wanted to know more and more. She too felt that the characters were asking her to continue telling about their plots. “Three Kisses” meets the demand and brings the end. Three years of sailing on a ship in the company of the characters. What a ship, a submarine!

In the morning, Catherine takes care of the house and the papers, and in the afternoon until 7 p.m., she writes. She only takes breaks to find out something about the plot or the characters, and for that she jumps to New York, Italy, or Russia. 6 families, 43 characters, and Catherine loves them all, even the darkest ones, which allow her to externalize the blackest side of herself. After 3 years on the submarine, Pancol brought her heroes to a safe harbor. Then she feels the need to move on to something else, to breathe new air. To do this, she travels to an exotic country that she still doesn't know, and then returns home and starts the next book. And again, she closes herself off into the unknown.