- January 25, 2023
La familia grande - Book - Camille Kouchner - Le seuil, 2021
More than thirty years after the fact, Camille Kouchner bears witness to the incest suffered by her twin brother from their stepfather, Olivier Duhamel, an intellectual and political figure. Camille was 14 when her brother confided in her and ordered her to keep the incestuous family secret. Camille kept silent until the day she became an aunt and mother, but this was no longer possible. Her revelations shattered what she had always believed to be her "familia grande". The siblings grow up in a tribe, family and friends, of committed intellectuals who are very liberated and close-knit. The story opens with the funeral of the twins' mother, who refused to take their side. The writing is still marked by the author's fear, even panic, of losing forever loved ones she has already lost. Incest impacts her adult life with guilt and terror. Camille Kouchner is constantly hypervigilant and somatized. She also describes how incest fractures the family to the point of explosion and rejection. Despite her twin's reticence, this daughter of public figures denounces incest and its mechanisms, as well as the passive complicity of those around her who turn a blind eye. This book is touching because it highlights the terrible powerlessness of children who imagine they have the power to destroy a family already in ruins. It also exposes the impunity and connivance enjoyed by the aggressor, even after he himself has admitted to the rapes. This is an important secondary testimony that illustrates the consequences of incest on all family members, even those not incested.
- Book