Mikael Petit - „The bear’s skin“

Godefroy de Bouillon editions, Paris, 2001

We liked this novel and for this reason we decided to write this article. First of all the author Mikael Petit (born in 1978), in his brief biographical note on the back cover, does not mention his food profession at all. We searched the internet for the answer. He is a Catholic priest but this is not indicated in the pages of the novel which could be autobiographical or based on autobiographical facts. This out of print novel was sold to us (a few days ago) by Philippe Randa whom everyone knows. Apart from a few short sentences, which seem to be said by a believer, nothing suggests that the novelist himself is a priest. He is also a painter and Mikael Petit’s paintings are well exhibited on a few sites but not on his own FB page which we also visited. This would be a sign of artistic modesty since his FB page is full of icons. Only one painting of his appears there, that of Joan of Arc for which Petit manifests his admiration from the first pages: „A lady (during an exhibition, note to us) contested my Joan of Arc“ (op. cit. page 30). Igor (his fictitious first name) is attracted by an admirer of his paintings nicknamed Francys, a name that is surely symbolic. But during the pages he also shows his attraction to boys. What courage for a priest to exteriorize his homosexuality! „Don Juan stalker of Adonis“ (op.cit.page 80). „Miss Francys de Noirssang and the painter Igor-Michel de L’hallier, two carefree young libertines and accomplices, like to meet around a cup of tea to criticize a modern world that they loathe, without having the naivety of s ‘to believe foreigners .... But Miss Francys carries in her, without knowing it, the curse transmitted by the errings of a pagan father .. „(op.cit. sentences copied by the back cover of the book). The whole novel would be a metaphor of artistic creation and, through the narrative and representative paintings of the hero, a set aside from contemporary art by the primitive side of his paintings. This primitive side will be underlined in the novel by the letters included as such to give an experimental dimension to the primitive writing of the author who nevertheless boasts on page 6 of his foreword „the first book published is the tenth qu ‘he writes „(op.cit.page 6). There is also a Guillaume Dustan side through his „experimental“ writing and through the embossing of personal letters. But we all know very well that he was Jewish. We will see in the next paragraph that Petit transmitted this Zionist style of Dustan, and his early novels like „In my room“, in an Aryan context. „It is religion which holds the secrets of art and beauty“ (op.cit.page 93). It is of course the Catholic religion which has been completely hidden from the world of contemporary art . Thus the hero will swing between the beautiful Francys and the beautiful Mélan. „He’s in the back room, helping me tidy up“ (op.cit.page 32). Who will win from this „showdown“? It’s up to you to tell us. It only remains for us to remind you that our favorite novelist and paganist Saint-Loup wrote „The skin of the aurochs“ in 1954 (its first edition). So it is obvious that Petit had wanted to adapt the warlike content of the latter in a more living environment than that of the snow-capped mountains of Marc Augier (his real name). He has only kept the paganist father of Francys as a common point in his story.

written by Dionysos Andronis