I’m in Favour of Anything that Helps Us Get through the Night is a multi-facetted novel, a kaleidoscope which accumulates small touches to build up a picture of a forty-year-old man living in France. The son of Italian immigrants, he is as much a child of rock and roll as of Magritte or Laurel and Hardy. In the great sensory catalogue that is his novel a succession of texts with intriguing names Fabio Viscogliosi tenderly gathers together the people who have meant something to him and opened up his mind to the world: did you know Picasso was fascinated by the fragile delicacy of bats? That Buster Keaton wore shoes much bigger than his feet? That Georges Simenon hoped his ashes would be put into a beautiful, bright red urn? Frank Sinatra, Bob Dylan, Alfred Hitchcock, Eddie Cochran… so many famous names all inviting themselves into the author’s own world, just passing through but leaving behind their impenetrable mysteries or their unique behaviour and attitudes.
What makes Fabio Viscogliosi’s so endearing is the way he also evokes his childhood and his parents whom, we learn, met a violent death one spring morning. His mother but more particularly his father whom he would “give a hand” with building jobs, putting in a water-heater, securing a gate, unblocking a toilet or soldering pipe-work, and with whom he had a strong bond of mutual understanding. Fabio Viscogliosi’s writing lends as much power and beauty to the work of an Italian plumber as a great cinematographer or renowned painter would.
This book is also shot through with the impact of death and the weight of loss, balancing between humour and melancholy. Questioning the absurd, the strength of connections and the nature of happiness, Fabio Viscogliosi’s novel is made up of little everyday things and tiny telling details that always show the other side of the coin. This gives the reader a central role within the text, because I’m in Favour of Anything that Helps Us Get through the Night is about us, told in well chosen words and a delicate style full of propriety, of our own journey, our days and our nights.
Fabio Viscogliosi was born in 1965 to Italian parents. He lives in France. I’m in Favour of Anything that Helps Us Get through the Night is his first novel. He is also a musician and illustrator.
Que Buster Keaton portait des chaussures bien plus grandes que ses pieds ? Que Georges Simenon rêvait d'une belle urne rouge vif pour accueillir ses cendres ? Franck Sinatra, Bob Dylan, Alfred Hitchcock ou Eddie Cochran ... autant d'hommes illustres qui s'invitent également dans l'univers de l'auteur, ne faisant que passer mais déposant l'épaisseur de leurs mystères ou la singularité de leurs pratiques et de leurs questionnements.
Mais ce qui fait que le livre de Fabio Viscogliosi est extrêmement attachant est la façon dont il évoque aussi l'enfance et la figure des parents dont on comprend qu'ils ont disparu brutalement un jour de printemps. La mère, mais aussi et surtout le père à qui "il donnait souvent la main" sur les chantiers, pour poser un cumulus, fixer un portail, déboucher des toilettes ou souder de la tuyauterie, et avec qui il entretenait une relation profonde et complice. L'écriture de Fabio Viscogliosi donne à la beauté du geste d'un plombier italien autant de force que celle d'un cinéaste ou d'un peintre de renom. C'est aussi la disparition et le poids de la perte qui traversent ce livre, emprunt d'humour et de mélancolie. Questionnement sur l'absurde, la force du lien, la nature du bonheur, le récit de Fabio Viscogliosi est fait des petites choses du quotidien, d'infimes détails révélateurs, montrant toujours l'envers du décor. Et c'est ainsi que le lecteur prend une place centrale dans ce texte, parce que Je suis pour tout ce qui aide à traverser la nuit parle de lui, avec des mots justes et un style délicat emprunt de pudeur, de sa propre traversée, de ses jours et de sa nuit.