France’s finance minister has published a shockingly risqué novel — complete with explicit sex scenes — even as the country faces dire economic woes.
Bruno Le Maire’s 471-page novel “Fugue Américaine” from publishing house Gallimard hit bookstores late last month.
The story takes place in 1949, and is told through the eyes of brothers Franz and Oskar Wertheimer, who travel to Cuba to attend a concert by real-life pianist Vladimir Horowitz, but instead have their lives turned upside down.
In one passage that takes a particularly racy turn, Le Maire explicitly describes Oskar having sex with Julia, another key character in the novel.
“She wrapped one leg around my waist, clutched her other leg to my ankle and tilted her head back,” the passage begins before veering into language too racy to be published in a newspaper.
On page 74, Julia “peels off her shirt and throws herself on the bed in front of the protagonist,” according to the Wall Street Journal. “The prose veers into ribald and almost clinical terminology, landing somewhere between erotica and shoptalk at a proctologists’ convention.”
The book has occasionally made the 54-year-old government official the butt of jokes.
The Journal reported that in a recent parliamentary debate, a far-right lawmaker said an answer from Le Maire wasn’t “dilatory” — a clear reference to the clinical language used in his sex scenes.
“That triggered laughter on the floor,” according to the paper.
The 54-year-old finance minister, who has served under President Emmanuel Macron since he took office in 2017, defended the book in an interview with the Journal by describing his passion for writing, according to The Wall Street Journal.
“It’s a very deep, inner necessity that gives me balance. I’m just trying to be 100% myself,” Le Maire said in the interview.
“There is sensuality in the book,” he added. “It’s a very important aspect because it’s a way for me to reflect the sensuality of Horowitz’s playing.”
It’s Le Maire’s second novel to be published with Gaillard, which described the minister’s latest release as a story of “clash between East and West” and “moving reflection on human beings and on their capacity to live,” The Journal reported.
The book has drawn attention as French citizens are protesting against the country’s controversial pension reform that was signed into law on April 22.
The legislation raised France’s retirement age from 62 to 64 by decree rather than submitting it to a vote in Parliament.
Le Maire — who is expected to run for president in 2027 — has vehemently supported President Macron’s pension reform despite social unrest.
And in a case of bad timing, “Fugue Américaine” was released a day before credit ratings agency Fitch downgraded France’s sovereign-credit rating in the wake of protests over raising the country’s retirement age, which will go into effect in September.
However, Le Maire took to Twitter to express that the 10 years he spent writing “Fugue Américaine” did not take away from his government duties.
“It is a need that is worth getting up earlier for, going to bed later, devoting weekends and vacations to it,” the economy and finance minister said in a tweet last month.
The paperback book is available on Amazon for $39.99
[Written in collaboration with other media outlets with information from the following sources]
