Marceline Bodier, bookstagramer and contributor to the reading group 20 minutes Books, recommend you To Emilia by Julien Levy, published on March 9, 2022 by Éditions Jouvence.
His favorite quote:
The best guru is within us. To discover it is to find oneself.
Why this book?
- Because these are stories of transmission: From her journey through the 1960s and the encounters she made there, Emilia emerged with a way of life imbued with yoga and oriental wisdom. In 1991, she saved Marc-Antoine from himself, bereaved and unable to resurface without sinking into increasingly extreme experiences. Thirty years later, this same Marc-Antoine entrusts this story to Apolline, who came officially to interview him for a podcast, and unofficially, in search of her own reason for living: through him, it is Emilia who resurfaces.
- Because it is a book impregnated with several strong atmospheres, which immerse us in history: the atmosphere of the psychedelic experiences of the 1960s; the atmosphere in “le Poum”, an apartment where a group of young freedivers in search of existential experiences lived at the turn of the 1990s; the blocked atmosphere in a bereaved family; the atmosphere of refuge in the bookstore where Emilia officiates, with “the facade redone according to the rules of the art by a Dali from the streets”; and the atmosphere at Marc-Antoine thirty years later, which synthesizes all of this in a unique way.
- Because through drugs (designated or legal), alcohol, sex, apnea, like yoga, we are always looking for the same thing: to fill an existential void. The diversity of destinies that the book follows reflects this diversity of choices and the shadow of Timothy Leary, the militant LSD psychologist, is very present. But these very different choices cannot always be made with the same happiness and what the author leads us to is the idea that we can ” [apprendre] to regulate our internal states. Insubstantial”.
- Because yoga has found its uncle in America. Do you remember ? In 1980, in this film by Alain Resnais, the love story of Gérard Depardieu and Nicole Garcia was told in episodes interrupted by the biologist Henri Laborit, who commented on behavioral psychology experiments. In À Emilia, the plot alternates with extracts from a popular science book supposedly written by Marc-Antoine, dedicated to “À Emilia”, based on articles actually published and referenced. And believe me: reading the experiences is as exciting as the plot!
- Because the book is the direct heir to the novels of Irvin Yalom. All the ingredients are there: a very psychological story, very embodied characters of which we are aware of any intimate torment, dramas which it is not obvious that they can be overcome, and theoretical explanations which illuminate the whole plot. . Irvin Yalom is about philosophical systems; for Julien Lévy, it’s about yoga. We learn everything about it, both about its history in the West since the 1960s (sealed by Swamiji’s intervention in Woodstock) and about its physiological effects.
- Because music permeates history. It is punctuated by songs with which the plot always resonates, never by chance, because these songs were written by authors who were on the same spiritual quest as the characters. What would the mythical 1960s and their psychedelic experiences have been without the Beatles? The best proof that this book would have had a soundtrack even if it had not exposed it explicitly, is that one cannot close it without the urgent desire to listen again Lucy in the Sky ; not with Diamonds… but with Darshans (hugs)!
The essentials in 2 minutes
The plot. “Tim Leary was convinced that you needed a spiritual context to get the most out of LSD”: what if we got rid of LSD and kept only the spiritual context, for the same result? This is the gamble of the novel, where one identifies with both the story and the underlying theory.
Characters. Emilia, Marc-Antoine, Apolline: three generations, three destinies and their share of tragedies, three redemptions through yoga. This one is undoubtedly the main character, but he must assert himself against the horde of not so secondary characters who are psychotropic and ordalic experiences.
Places. The book takes place in Geneva, in 2021. But what Marc-Antoine tells Apolline between four walls takes them on a journey, and us with them: to California, India… and, much more terrifying, to Marseille in 1991. Yet it is there, in the bookstore of Book-Un, that a way out has arisen…
The time. The spiritual quest unfolds over several decades and three generations. From the psychedelic 1960s to our connected era, via the drugs and music of the 1990s, Julien Levy takes us on a journey into the timeless depths of our psyche.
The author. Julien Levy is no stranger: he teaches yoga and has already written several guides. But the discovery of his talent as a fiction writer, who embraces all his experience and integrates it into a deep and intelligent book, is a revelation: yoga has found its Irvin Yalom!
This book was read with the exhilarating feeling of having discovered an heir to a remarkable lineage passed down through Henri Verneuil (what would I be like Icarus without the famous Milgram experiment?), Alain Resnais, Irvin Yalom, and David Lodge (in Secret Thoughts, cognitive psychology is a key). Excuse a bit…
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Source: 20minutes
