I read every year Amélie Nothomb's novels from "Assassin's Hygiene", but had finally tired. So I did not buy the last two. You learn of any criticism, I returned to reading the author, through this latest novel. I have the feeling of having found a faithful mind to that which prevailed in the other: the same strength of character of the characters, even affirmation of their beliefs and their freedom, without compromising with the strength of external events. Untouchables through and not seeking recognition at all costs. I add that this story does not seem so unlikely as it, far from it, even surprising. I saw similarities with other games of naumachias and circuses ("bread and games"), which Amélie Nothomb is also itself a reference and I was just reading an interesting parallel evocation simultaneously in trying to Yves Roucaute "The demagogues from antiquity to the present day." Here we will even further than the film by Yves Boisset "The price of risk", which in the 1980s was already very strong and at the time had caught the imagination. But the fact remains that, despite interventions or self-righteous debates, emissions of reality will always later in excess and that nothing prevents them from place ... if the ratings. Not so unlikely, alas, I repeat.
