À l'ami qui ne m'a pas sauvé la vie by Hervé Guibert

Guibert immediately found himself the focus of media attention, featured in newspapers and appearing on several television talk shows. In 1990, Guibert publicly revealed his HIV status in his roman à clef À l’ami qui ne m’a pas sauvé la vie (published in English as To the Friend Who Did Not Save My Life). In June the following year, he married Christine, the partner of Thierry Jouno, so that his royalty income would eventually pass to her and her two children.

From then on, he worked at recording what was left of his life. Hervé Guibert compose de courts romans aux chapitres de quelques pages, qui se fondent souvent sur des faits biographiques. In January 1988 Guibert was diagnosed with AIDS. Son style évolue sous linfluence de ses lectures (Roland Barthes 17, Bernard-Marie Koltès ou encore Thomas Bernhard, ce dernier marquant ouvertement le style du roman A lami qui ne ma pas sauvé la vie). Three of his lovers occupied an important place in his life and work: Thierry Jouno, director of an institute for the blind whom he met in 1976, and which led to his novel Des aveugles (published in English as Blindsight) Michel Foucault, whom he met in 1977 and Vincent Marmousez, a teenager of fifteen who inspired his novel Fou de Vincent (published in English as Crazy for Vincent). Guibert’s writing style was inspired by the French writer Jean Genet and, later, by the work of Austrian writer Thomas Bernhard. He described these years in L’Incognito, published in 1989. He won a scholarship between 19 at Villa Medicis in Rome with his friend, writer Mathieu Lindon. Guibert had met Chéreau in the 1970s during his theatrical years.

In 1984, Guibert shared a César Award for best screenplay with Patrice Chéreau for L’homme blessé. In 1978, he successfully applied for a job at France’s prestigious evening paper Le Monde and published his second book, Les Aventures singulières (published by Éditions de Minuit). After working as a filmmaker and actor, he turned to photography and journalism. Guibert was born in Saint-Cloud, Hauts-de-Seine, to a middle-class family and spent his early years in Paris, moving to La Rochelle from 1970 to 1973.

À l'ami qui ne m'a pas sauvé la vie by Hervé Guibert