Joël Dicker (Geneva, 1985) returns. The author of the worldwide success The truth about the case Harry Quebert publishes a new thriller: A wild animal (La Campana/Alfaguara). A heist in a large jewelry store in Geneva, two marriages in which nothing is as it seems, a past that always haunts and is continuously being rewritten and many passions unleashed, notably lust and envy, form a story with continuous time jumps which talks about the impossibility of changing the nature of people and about recognizing oneself.
In his previous novel he talked about learning to forgive ourselves for the way we are. Now he emphasizes that we cannot stop being who we are.
I mean that in a positive way. We are what we are and what we are. We live in a world where we have the impression that others want us to be different. Or we feel that we have to be different in front of others to please them. We are never muscular enough, handsome, we don’t do things well enough. And we forget to like ourselves, to love ourselves a little. One must take it as it is remembering that life is short. We only have one and we have to ask ourselves if we really take care of ourselves.
Even if we are a panther, like its protagonist.
The wild animal of the novel’s title is our instinct. And it is probably the greatest strength we have and the greatest gift life gives us. This radar, this guidance, like the one that turtles have in the sea: they are born on a beach, they come out of their eggs and they go to the sea. They swim for a long time and after 20 years their instinct returns them to the initial beach to lay the eggs where they were born. We have the same instinct. What do we do with it? When we are born it is at its best, but when we grow up it gets worse, it confronts the parents, the teachers, they say to the child: “Are you sure it’s a good idea?”, “Do this and don’t do that”. We screw it up and most people don’t use it, they’ll ask others what to do. It’s okay to ask, but then you say to yourself: “I knew I had to do it.” You didn’t follow your gut.
If the oracle of Delphi said “Know thyself”, would you say “Know thyself”?
Recognize yourself and take responsibility. Understanding this, my characters have difficulties, they have to accept who they are in front of others. And they fear being less loved.
Almost all of his characters seem preoccupied with appearances. Want to explore it?
Yes, because we live in a world where it seems that there is never enough, you always need to be more, need more. It’s the social networks, where everyone is in an extraordinary mood and fit. It seems that other people’s lives are always better. It is a world that is built on arousing desire in the other. We upload photos where everything is going great and we are with someone important under palm trees… Look what I do that you don’t, what I have that you don’t have, therefore I am superior to you. We want to arouse envy.
As in his work, does earning more than his wife still matter so much to many men?
In Switzerland, such a democratic country, women earn 10% less, you get paid 12 months, they get paid until November for being a woman. Here the man he refers to has always been recognized, has had light, and when he gets together with his partner he is overshadowed by that more intelligent, recognized woman. He is in her shadow, he lives it very badly, but, while he makes a better living than her, he projects his truth on money.
In his work it is not clear whether money is the driving force behind everything or whether it serves our passions.
Money is the great complex of society. We have chosen to live in capitalist economies, very practical, and money defines us, it is our engine, it builds us. This is how we have come to be in a world of social networks that are first of all economic models and it is becoming one of the biggest disasters of our century, with people full of fake news and that is reported on Instagram and not in the newspapers and that it does not verify the sources.
With a narrative so fragmented in time, were you looking for a cinematic effect?
No. I am often told that my novels are very cinematic, that you can see the film immediately. It amuses me: in a world where nothing but series is talked about, only one of my seven novels has been adapted. There are many characters and many comings and goings in time. I think that my novels are not so cinematic and mostly that the readers tell stories for themselves. That’s why we like to read, because we imagine the places, the characters, and that’s what literature is. Regarding the construction of temporality, I don’t write linearly and then deconstruct it, I write as the reader receives it.
