After 30 years of reporting on France for Reuters and The Economist and marriage to a Frenchwoman, Jonathan Fenby comes out with an informative, insightful and critical study of France, his "home, away from home". Fenby, now the editor of South China Morning Post, weaves reportage, anecdotes and analyses into a fascinating presentation of contemporary France. He is thorough with French politics, society and history and sees today's state of affairs from the backdrop of the French Revolution, the tumultuous 19th century, and the Nazi collaboration of its Vichy regime.
The classic stereotypes of Paris - those smartly dressed people and the street corner cafes have stayed back in the times of Jean-Paul Sartre. The French do not like those from the United Kingdom or the United States telling them what their society is like today. Or, what is wrong with them. Fenby, unabashedly and with a lot of daring, does just that. The post-war modernisation that came with Charles de Gaulle, Giscard d' Estaing and Francois Mitterand was nothing short of Americanisation. The Louvre and the cafes coexist with MacDonald's and Disney. The small family businesses have made way for multinational departmental stores. The turbulent, romantic Sixties are not going to come back.
A seasoned journalist that he is, Fenby's narrative is racy. He does not, needless to say, leave out the scandals of recent times. The Bernard Tapie episode and that of Roger-Patrice Pelat, Mitterrand's wartime pal, or Rene Bousquet , are all reconstructed in a manner that leaves little doubt in one's mind that this journalist has all the makings of a writer of political thrillers.
Fenby starts off with a catalogue of France's virtues and contributions to culture over the centuries. Subsequently, he debunks the French myth, examining what he perceives as its collision course with the realities of the 21st century. He tries to analyse particular elements of French existence and illustrate how it arrived at its present stage of near collapse. He says he loves France but worries about the state it has reached. France, he argues, suffers from lack of political coherence, a superiority complex, cowardice, high anxiety, disenchantment with the ruling elite, lack of Cartesian logic, careless driving, contempt for its own cultural heritage, conservatism, incompetence, linguistic delusions, neo-imperialism, male chauvinism, old age, technological backwardness, laziness, immorality, shortsightedness, and even smelly feet.
Fenby's concern for his "home away from home" is, at times, an obsession. He does not generalise the decay he sees in France as being something that is intrinsic to modern society. That is when he gives the impression that he is so steeped in nostalgia that he does not assess the reality dispassionately. The rot is not unique to France alone. It has set in everywhere. The Americanisation of the globe is on.
The author, however, is not steeped in despondency. He sees a glimmer of hope in the cohabitation between Gaullist President Jacques Chirac and Socialist Prime Minister Lionel Jospin as a unique opportunity to lead a fresh revolution. Whether Chirac and Jospin share the same feelings about keeping pace with the present, while preserving the best of the past is something only they can tell.
Review: France On the Brink
