He relates all this with clarity and jubilation. It is the effect of a grandfather who tells his memories to his grandchildren. We listen with pleasure. This book reads at full speed and it's hard to stop (grandpa, we still tells a story ...).
It is both light and profound, gay and nostalgic, frivolous and philosophical.
His rich experience, so rich, gives us a lesson of life and shows us how to take the right side. He had done it before and he will start if time allows. Jean d'Ormesson knows he has traveled most of the way. He gives us in this book his pragmatic view of life, drawn from his experience.
Do not rely on his modesty, he is a great thinker of this century. Obviously, from his point of view, after being around so many dazzling people - including a few Nobel Prize - his achievements seem minor. If he could only be given to us to have half of a life like this, it would suffice to our happiness.
